TTV
Syntax |
TTV [ ( x1 *[,xi]* )] |
Location |
QView Tiny Toolkit |
The function TTV returns the address of the QView Toolkit workspace, which is a piece of shared memory of 176 bytes which can be accessed from any job. The idea is that this workspace is used for communication between different parts of the same program. By default, these bytes are set to zero, so that you can freely POKE to them without the danger of crashes. Note that the value of TTV is the same for all jobs. The parameters are (more or less) just for fun, their sum is added to the start address of the QView Toolkit workspace before that address is returned. So:
TTV = TTV(0)
TTV(10) = TTV+10 = TTV(3,3,3,1)
Example
The workspace is preceded by 64 bytes for QView Toolkit’s internal use. There is however one value that is interesting to look at:
PEEK_L(TTV-64)
is a very precise counter, it increases once every frame. This is ideal for checking program speed without the need for long lasting benchmarks, the following programs demonstrates the difference in speed between some different types of FOR constructions:
100 TIMER_START
110 FOR i = 1 TO 10000
120 REMark
130 END FOR i
140 TIMER_STOP
150 :
160 TIMER_START
170 FOR i = 1 TO 10000: REMark
180 TIMER_STOP
190 :
200 TIMER_START
210 FOR i% = 1 TO 10000: REMark
220 TIMER_STOP
230 :
240 :
250 DEFine PROCedure TIMER_START
260 POKE_L TTV(-64),0
270 END DEFine TIMER_START
280 :
290 DEFine PROCedure TIMER_STOP
300 LOCal count
310 count = PEEK_L(TTV-64)
320 PRINT INT (count/5) /10;"s"
330 END DEFine TIMER_STOP
The third test (lines 200 to 220) works on Minerva and SMS only, and is the fastest: 78% faster than the first test! Some QLs (mainly those in the UK using TV’s) will need to amend line 320 to read:
320 PRINT INT (count/6 )/10;'s'
CROSS-REFERENCE