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From: akcs.scotty@hpcvbbs.UUCP (SCOTTY THOMPSON)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.handhelds
Subject: Notes on Internals
Keywords: internals, hp48sx
Message-ID: <282dbbf8:3077comp.sys.handhelds@hpcvbbs.UUCP>
Date: 12 May 91 22:40:16 GMT
Lines: 66

A painstaking attempt was made to convert my ECHR library from user RPL
to internal RPL.  I spent over a week and went through two bottles of
MOTRIN!
Needless to say, just when I was about to give-up (my last attempt), the
screen popped-up and the damn thing worked!

Were all of those hours and headaches worth it?  NO, NO, NO!

A couple of notes for those trying to hack with internal routines
instead:

1> I didn't want to change the code from its tested and beaten path (a
program that worked...) so my attempt was to simply (ha) convert to the
internal routines.  I ran into major problems with the IF, THEN, ELSE,
etc. statements.  I was trying to use the internal routines (even saving
the tokens), but it would never work.  Impossible to debug with SST
because all ya see are "External, External..."
I think my biggest problem is that I didn't put the ML token save routine
with the internal then routine inside D9D20...B2130.
If using if...THEN...ELSE, then the portions of code (unless 1 token)
between the THEN...ELSE and/or ELSE...END must be enclosed in
D9D20...B2130 to work properly.

E.g.,

3CE22 [IF]
  9C2A2 [1]
AFE22 [THEN]
D9D20 [;Program]
88130 [DUP]
339201000000000000550 [55]
B2130 [;End Program]
5BF22 [ELSE]
B9F06 [;Drop Level 2 Object]
5DF22 [END]

2> CASE statements should be blocked like:

D8732 [CASE]
D9D20 [;Program]
..... [CASE TESTS...]
8A732 [THEN]
D9D20
..... [THEN COMMANDS...]
B2130
5DF22 [END]
..... [CASE TESTS...]
8A732 [THEN]
D9D20
..... [THEN COMMANDS]
B2130
5DF22 [END
B2130 [CASE OTHERWISE TERMINATION]
5DF22 [END]

Brass tacks are brass tacks...My problems were I wasn't putting the
D9D20...B2130 program delimiters to identify each "chunk" as a token.
I guess these are equivalent to IFT/IFTE statements...

Again, was it worth it?  NO.  I see no super-noticable speed increases
when using the internal routines or just plain vanilla RPL (what do you
think I prefer now?).  Maybe 5-10% increase.

It would appear to me that M/L is the only way to really speed-up
programs, that internal routines should only be called when a function is
available internally not otherwise accessible or for simple header
routines, and that I will never do that again...