Question on printing variables to the console

[tmob03]

In this post you made https://www.reddit.com/r/Tf2Scripts/comments/im624x/scalu_a_programming_language_for_configuration/
you mention scalu has the ability to print variable values to the console, is this just simple if (x == 6) { [echo 6] } or is there something to not have to pre-define all the different values and just do [echo X] or something?

[ArgosOfIthica]

Good catch, I don't mention this very well in the documentation.

There's 2 methods. There's the debug operator ?, which when used like:

a = ?a

Will print the value of a to the console, but in binary.

I've been too busy to write a standard library, where the 2nd alternative would have gone, but you can quite simply implement print yourself.

service print {
    jump (a) {{[echo 0]} {[echo 1]} {[echo 2]} .... }
}

While verbose, this is very fast, as jump determines which block to execute by scanning the bits of a; it can be as fast as a single comparison. Then, I'd generally recommend setting the value of a with whatever value you want to examine rather than creating this service for every variable.

[tmob03]

Thanks!

[tmob03]

@ArgosOfIthica I'd probably be willing to create a standard library, what all do you think would be useful in it?

[tmob03]

With no function argument and function return equivalent I can’t imagine there’s a whole lot you could do in a library, just things like printint(0-255)and printchar as seen in hangman, unless I’m really underestimating what scalu currently can do…

[ArgosOfIthica]

With no function argument and function return equivalent I can’t imagine there’s a whole lot you could do in a library, just things like printint(0-255)and printchar as seen in hangman, unless I’m really underestimating what scalu currently can do…

That's true, scalu does not implement a built-in stack, so true functions aren't feasible at the language level. However, that has very little implication for writing useful services; many assembly languages also lack any built-in notion of a stack. As an example, services I'd consider implementing might be multiplication, variable bitshifts, xor prng, modulus, bigints, etc (That's not even mentioning any engine or game-specific utilities.). You can simply declare specific input and output variables that anyone writing code against your library will already know about.