What is new in Ring 1.14?

In this chapter we will learn about the changes and new features in Ring 1.14 release.

List of changes and new features

Ring 1.14 comes with the next features!

  • MyCoffee (Web Application)

  • Web Development Samples

  • More Samples

  • Erlang B Formula

  • Customers Form

  • RingTilengine Extension

  • RingLibui Extension

  • RingSockets Extension

  • RingThreads Extension

  • Better RingOpenSSL

  • More Functions

  • Better Functions

  • Better Performance For Strings

  • Better Handling For Numbers

  • Using CLOC (Count Lines of Code)

  • More Improvements

MyCoffee (Web Application)

A web application that uses the WebLib library and PostgreSQL database

Screen Shots:

MyCoffee1 MyCoffee2 MyCoffee3

Web Development Samples

Starting from lesson 301, the Hassouna Course provides lessons about web development.

These lessons uses the WebLib library for Back-end web development.

Special YouTube playlist for these lessons:

The samples are added to this folder:

Screen Shot:

  • Calculator Sample

Web Sample 1

More Samples

The next samples are added to the samples folder

  • ring/samples/UsingQML/sample12 folder

  • ring/samples/General/TimeServer folder

  • ring/samples/General/BinarokuGame folder

  • ring/samples/Language/EnumGenerator folder

  • ring/samples/Language/DynamicObject folder

  • ring/samples/Drawing/MatrixMultiply3DRotationCube

Screen Shots:

Matrix Multiplication Qt Quick 3D

Erlang B Formula

An application that uses the Erlang B Formula (Circuit Switching Systems)

erlangb

Customers Form

An application that uses SQLite and TableWidget

The Use Interface is provided in Arabic, English & French

erlangb

RingTilengine Extension

This extension provides support for Tilengine - The 2D retro graphics engine with raster effects

Example:

load "tilengine.ring"

TLN_Init(400, 240, 1, 0, 0)
TLN_SetLoadPath("assets\sonic")
foreground = TLN_LoadTilemap ("Sonic_md_fg1.tmx", NULL)
TLN_SetLayerTilemap(0, foreground)

TLN_CreateWindow(NULL, 0)
while TLN_ProcessWindow()
        TLN_DrawFrame(0)
end

TLN_DeleteTilemap(foreground)
TLN_Deinit()

Screen Shots:

tilengine tilengine tilengine tilengine

RingLibui Extension

This extension provides complete support for Libui

Using this extension we can develop and distribute lightweight GUI Applications using Ring (Less than 1 MB)

Runtime files and their size

  • Ring.dll (448 KB)

  • Libui.dll (210 KB)

  • Ring_Libui.dll (633 KB)

  • Total : 1,291 KB without compressing the files

  • After compressing the files (To ZIP file) - Total : 504 KB

Example:

load "libui.ring"

oWindow = uiNewWindow( "Say Hello", 500, 80, True)
uiWindowOnClosing(oWindow,"closeApp()")

lbl1 = uiNewLabel("Name: ")
text1 = uiNewEntry()

btn1 = uiNewButton("SayHello")
uiButtonOnClicked(btn1,"sayHello()")

btn2 = uiNewButton("Close")
uiButtonOnClicked(btn2,"closeApp()")

lbl2 = uiNewLabel("")

g = uiNewGrid() uiGridSetPadded(g, 1) uiWindowSetChild(oWindow, g)
uiGridAppend(g, lbl1, 0, 0, 2, 1, 1, uiAlignCenter, 0, uiAlignCenter)
uiGridAppend(g, text1, 1, 0, 2, 1, 1, uiAlignFill, 0, uiAlignFill)
uiGridAppend(g, btn1, 0, 1, 1, 2, 1, uiAlignFill, 0, uiAlignFill)
uiGridAppend(g, btn2, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, uiAlignFill, 0, uiAlignFill)
uiGridAppend(g, lbl2, 0, 3, 2, 1, 1, uiAlignCenter, 0, uiAlignCenter)

uiControlShow( oWindow )
uiMain()

func sayHello
        uiLabelSetText(lbl2,"Hello " + uiEntryText(text1))

func closeApp
        uiQuit()

Screen Shots:

RingLibui Screen Shot RingLibui Screen Shot RingLibui Screen Shot RingLibui Screen Shot

RingSockets Extension

In Ring, We have sockets using different extensions like RingQt, RingLibuv and RingLibSDL

In this release we provide a special extension for sockets

This will be useful if your application doesn’t use the previous libraries

Example (Server Code)

# TCP SERVER

load "sockets.ring"

sock = socket(AF_INET,SOCK_STREAM,0)
bind(sock,"127.0.0.1",5050)
listen(sock,5)
ns = accept(sock)
send(ns,"Hello Client")
msg = recv(ns,1024)
? "Client Say >> " + msg
close(sock)
? "Socket connection closed"

Example (Client Code)

# TCP Client

load "sockets.ring"

sock = socket(AF_INET,SOCK_STREAM)
connect(sock,"127.0.0.1",5050)

send(sock,"Hello Server")
msg = recv(sock,1024)
? "Server Say >> " + msg

close(sock)
? "Socket connection closed"

RingThreads Extension

In Ring, We have threads using different extensions like RingQt, RingLibuv and RingAllegro

In this release we provide a special extension for threads

This will be useful if your application doesn’t use the previous libraries

Example:

load "threads.ring"

func main

        nThreads = 2
        aList = list(nThreads)

        for x=1 to nThreads
                aList[x] = new_thrd_t()
                thrd_create(aList[x],"Hello("+x+")")
        next

        for x=1 to nThreads
                res= 0
                thrd_join(aList[x],:res)
        next

        ? :Done
        shutdown()

func Hello x

        for r=1 to 100
                ? "Message from the Hello("+x+") function"
        next

Better RingOpenSSL

The next functions are added to the RingOpenSSL extension

These functions compute the hash of large files/data without the need to load all of the content in a single string.

md5init() -> MD5_CTX
md5update (MD5_CTX, string) -> 1 for success or 0 for failure
md5final (MD5_CTX) -> string

sha1init() -> SHA_CTX
sha1update (SHA_CTX, string) -> 1 for success or 0 for failure
sha1final (SHA_CTX) -> string

sha224init() -> SHA224_CTX
sha224update (SHA224_CTX, string) -> 1 for success or 0 for failure
sha224final (SHA224_CTX) -> string

sha256init() -> SHA256_CTX
sha256update (SHA256_CTX, string) -> 1 for success or 0 for failure
sha256final (SHA256_CTX) -> string

sha384init() -> SHA384_CTX
sha384update (SHA384_CTX, string) -> 1 for success or 0 for failure
sha384final (SHA384_CTX) -> string

sha512init() -> SHA512_CTX
sha512update (SHA512_CTX, string) -> 1 for success or 0 for failure
sha512final (SHA512_CTX) -> string

More Functions

  • DirExists() Function

DirExists(cDirPath) ---> returns 1 if the directory exists
  • GetPathType() Function

GetPathType(cPath) ---> 0 if the path doesn't exists
                        1 if it corresponds to existing file
                        2 if it corresponds to existing directory
                        -1 if the path exists but has
                           an unknown type (e.g. a pipe)
  • SysSet() Function

We can set environment variables using the SysSet() function

SysSet(cVariable, cValue) ---> Returns 1 for success and return 0 for failure
  • SysUnset() Function

We can delete an environment variables using the SysUnset() function

SysUnset(cVariable) ---> Returns 1 for success and return 0 for failure
  • GetArch() Function

We can detect the architecture of the Ring executable using the GetArch() function

Syntax:

GetArch() ---> cString (The name of the architecture of the Ring executable)

Example:

switch getarch()
on "x86"
        ? "x86 32bit architecture"
on "x64"
        ? "x64 64bit architecture"
on "arm64"
        ? "ARM64 64bit architecture"
on "arm"
        ? "ARM 32bit architecture"
other
        ? "Unknown architecture"
off
  • NofProcessors() Function

We can detect the number of processors using the NofProcessors() Function

Syntax:

NofProcessors() ---> nProcessors

Example:

? NofProcessors()

Better Functions

  • Log() Function

The functions is updated to support calculating the logarithm to any base

Syntax:

Log(nNumber)       --> logarithm of nNumber to the base of e
Log(nNumber,nBase) --> logarithm of nNumber to the base of nBase

Example:

? log(10)       # 2.30
? log(2)        # 0.69
? log(10,10)    # 1
? log(2,2)      # 1
? log(100,10)   # 2

Better Performance For Strings

  • Ring 1.14 is 3x Faster in programs that have strings with long and fixed size

Example:

load "openssllib.ring"
f = fopen(exefilename(),"rb")
h = SHA256Init()
while true
  s = fread(f, 4096)
  if isstring(s)
    SHA256Update(h, s)
  else
    exit
  ok
end
digest = SHA256Final(h)
fclose(f)
? digest

Output:

4e677154639dae3baa048ce5ae0b04b63bcd33316e2d2041297dcee85604d778
  • Ring 1.14 is 60x Faster when adding strings to other strings

Example:

t1 = clock()
test = "My Ring"
for x = 1 to 20000
        test += x
next
? "Time : " + ((clock()-t1)/clockspersecond()) + " seconds"

Output:

Time : 0.01 seconds
  • These improvements increased the performance of Ring Code Generator for Extensions (4x Faster)

Better Handling For Numbers

  1. Using Hexadecimal Values

Example:

x = 0x10
? x             # 16
x = 0xff
? x             # 255
x = 0x0A
? x             # 10
? 0xFFFF        # 65535
? 0x0A + 1      # 10+1 = 11
  1. Printing large double value

Example:

c = 999999999999999
for i = 1 to 13
        c *= 999999999999999
next
? "c = " + c

Output:

c = 9.999999999999862032924046117813879019544782068185773946275755888189234614925384380788550958e+209
  1. Using String() and Number() with large double values

Example:

c1 = 999999999999999
for i = 1 to 13
        c1 *= 999999999999999
next

s = string(c1)  ? "c1 = " + s
c2 = number(s)  ? "c2 = " + c2

? "c2 - c1 = " + (c2 - c1)

str1    = "-2222044646462"
c       = Number(str1)
str2    = String(c)

if str1 = str2
        ? "Strings Identical"
else
        ? "Strings Mismatch!"
ok

Output:

c1 = 9.999999999999862032924046117813879019544782068185773946275755888189234614925384380788550958e+209
c2 = 9.999999999999862032924046117813879019544782068185773946275755888189234614925384380788550958e+209
c2 - c1 = 0
Strings Identical

Using CLOC (Count Lines of Code)

Usage:

ringcloc <application_folder_path>

Example(1):

ringcloc c:\ring\tools\ringnotepad

Output:

      47 text files.
      47 unique files.
      11 files ignored.

github.com/AlDanial/cloc v 1.88  T=1.18 s (39.0 files/s, 3212.2 lines/s)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Language                         files          blank        comment           code
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ring                                33            273            139           3186
Bourne Shell                         4             22              9             88
DOS Batch                            4              3              7             20
INI                                  1              0              0             15
C                                    1              0              1             10
Markdown                             2              4              0              8
Windows Resource File                1              0              0              1
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SUM:                                46            302            156           3328
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Example(2):

ringcloc c:\ring\tools\formdesigner

Output:

      54 text files.
      54 unique files.
      13 files ignored.

github.com/AlDanial/cloc v 1.88  T=1.54 s (34.5 files/s, 7122.4 lines/s)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Language                     files          blank        comment           code
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ring                            52           1306            567           9071
Markdown                         1              5              0              7
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SUM:                            53           1311            567           9078
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

More Improvements

  • Ring Compiler - Pass new lines after the FUNC keyword in anonymous functions

  • Ring Compiler - Pass new lines after the function parameters in anonymous functions

  • Ring Compiler - Pass new lines after the access of the list items

  • Ring Compiler - Pass new lines after the access of the object attribute

  • Ring Compiler - Support numbers of 97 digits

  • Ring Compiler - Support Statement –> Expression –> ‘(’ ‘)’

  • Ring Compiler - Support Statement –> Expression –> ‘(’ Expression ‘)’ ‘.’ Attribute|Method

  • Ring Compiler - Better error message when literal is not closed

  • Ring VM - Str2Hex() function - Better Performance

  • Ring VM - Hex2Str() function - Better Performance

  • Ring VM - SubStr() function - Better Code

  • Ring VM - Dec() function - Better Code

  • Ring VM - String() function - Better Code

  • Ring VM - Number() function - Better Code

  • Ring VM - Decimals() function - Allows a range between 0 and 90

  • Ring VM - Comparing between binary strings - Better Code

  • Ring VM - IsWindows64() function - Better Code

  • Ring VM - Unsigned() function - Better Code

  • Ring VM - Function Call - Better Management for Lists & Nested Lists state

  • Ring VM - AddAttribute() - The default type of the new attribute will be a STRING

  • Ring VM - Dir() function - Better Code

  • Ring VM - Copy() function - Better Code (Ignore Negative Numbers)

  • Ring VM - Restore the step value when we use exit from more than one loop

  • Ring VM - After (For-In Loop) - Delete the reference but keep a copy of the value

  • Ring VM - Better Code when working with many threads

  • Ring VM - Better Code when restoring the state after Try/Catch/Done

  • Ring VM - Better Code when using Raise() in nested calls after Try/Catch/Done

  • Ring VM - Better format when printing instructions during execution

  • Ring VM - Support using the & Operator to return the String Character Reference

  • Ring VM - Call command - function name - not case sensitive

  • Ring Compiler/VM Source Code - Better Format

  • Ring Compiler/VM Source Code - Code Refactoring

  • Ring Compiler/VM - New instruction: ICO_FREETEMPLISTS

  • RingPM - New Package: GUILib (Separate package for the GUILib classes)

  • RingPM - New Package: ObjectsLib (Separate package for the ObjectsLib classes)

  • RingPM - New Package: CLOC (Count Lines of Code)

  • RingQt - QWebEngineView Class - Added: Print(QPrinter,cEventCode) Method

  • RingQt - QCombobox Class - Added: setCurrentText() and addItems() methods

  • RingQt - Added: QLocale Class

  • RingQtRuntime Package: Using GUILib & ObjectsLib packages

  • GameEngine - Add the delay function to the Graphics Library: gl_delay() function

  • GameEngine - Using the Resources Class when loading the Window Icon

  • RingAllegro - Better Code

  • RingMurmurHash - Better Code

  • RingOpenSSL - RandBytes() function - Better Code

  • RingZip - GetFileNameByIndex() function - Better Code

  • RingLibSDL - Building using LibSDL version 2.0.14