FlowStone 4 alpha documentation

[Spogg]

I created this topic so we have a place to add technical information about the FlowStone 4 alpha.
It may seem logical to do this on the Slack forum, but the Slack forum we use is the free version and, since the amount of space in the free version is restricted, older posts can get deleted as new posts are made. I looked into paying for it but each login has to pay and the cost would be prohibitive for most of us.

Provisionally the attached zip will contain 4 documents: New features, Known issues, a spreadsheet kindly made by Hugh Banton for DSP and ASM reference and a release history spredsheet kindly made by Martin Vicanek. Also we have a folder addressing the new memrefin ASM input type which contains demo schematics and its own document.
New features would include descriptions of new prims and changes to existing ones and additional features of the updated edit environment.
Known issues contributions must be stuff that’s been posted in the Help channel on Slack and have been verified by at least one other person on Slack and not yet addressed by Maik in the Alpha channel.This topic is not intended for discussion of any new issues that arise, that should be on Slack please.



My idea is that you can post contributions as individual posts (not updating the docs in the zip) and I will collate these into the documents and update the zip in this first post. The zip will be versioned and I’ll post a “bump” message when the zip has been updated. Please don’t hold back if you consider your English to be poor because I’m happy to “optimise” it!

To keep the topic more compact I’ll delete your posts once I’ve amended the master documents. If you prefer to compile and attach a larger list of changes, that’s fine too.

Initially I would say don’t worry about fancy graphics and PDFs because that can come later. The current goal is just to get the new information down in one place to benefit us all.

And could I kindly request that this topic is reserved only for these technical contributions and not used to ask questions about prims, release dates, criticisms etc. Any post other than document contributions should be made on the Slack forum.

However, I want to avoid wrong information in the documents so if you think something posted or included is incorrect or incomplete please feel free to say. Once we have a resolution I’ll amend the documents and delete the relevant posts.

Cheers!

Current alpha version: v3.0.9b2-3484-g7792583 9th Feb 2021

[Spogg]

The first post now has version 9 of the zip.

No changes to the pre-existing documents but I’ve added a huge and amazing spreadsheet kindly provided by Martin and I can’t thank him enough for what must have been a mammoth task.
This is a comprehensive release history documenting all the changes since November 2018. That includes fixes, additions, improvements etc and Martin has provided filters so you can just display the new additions for example.

Let’s hope the forum stays up this time!

Cheers!

[billv]

Thanks for updating the spreadsheets.. ..it looks interesting..it's the first time I've
had a look at FS4..so I'm glad the mystery is gone... ..I can't get this "Slack" machine
operational so I can't download and participate in FS4.

[nix]

flowstone-support.slack.com

this is the name of the Slack

hehe it wants a magic code for a password free sign-in

[billv]

Thanks nix...well I got it up and running..but then ended up in a endless loop of password
bullshit and I got the shits real quick...
I don't understand the "cloak and dagger" approach of the FS4 development.
We have a perfectly good home at this website?
Why can"t we just rename the Off Topic..to FS4...and bring the whole thing back home

[gvalletto]

Hi @Spogg! thanks by that work!
I saw the list of DSP Code Function in the Excel document. Perhaps you can to add the " ^ " symbol near the "pow" function, both are working in the DSP modules.

[aronb]

@Spogg

I did not see the Ternary Operator listed... I just hope it will / is included

Great job putting all this together!!!

Aron