A major new software and firmware release for the ZX-128e, ZX-128ne, ZX-1281e, ZX-1281ne has been issued by Elba Corporation that includes an updated version of the ZBasic installer for the compiler, IDE and documentation and a corresponding update to the ZBasic firmware.

The new ZBasic installer version 2.5 is available from the ZBasic Software Downloads page. The updated ZBasic compiler has following new System Library routines, enhancements and bug fixes:

• Added Option.ExtRamAble constant to indicate if external RAM is supported.
  


• Added OpenI2CSlave(), OpenSPISlave() and CloseSPI().


• Added an optional fourth parameter to OpenSPI() to regulate receive timing.
  


• Added support for GetQueueSpace().
  


• Added support for "raw" initialization data for Program Memory data items using Attribute(raw). The initialization file should contain the raw binary data.
  


• Corrected a false warning regarding the state of initialized variables.
  


• Corrected a problem with a missing temp variable for a string parameter.
  


• Corrected a VM code generation problem for IIF() with a Boolean result.
  


• Corrected a native mode code generation problem with a For loop having a negative step.
  


• Corrected a native code generation problem with an empty If statement.
  


• Corrected a problem where a Boolean parameter to a task resulted in an internal error.
  


• Added support for the defined() operator in conditional _expression_s.
  


• Corrected a problem with port configuration directives.
  


• Corrected a native code generation problem for ZXCmdMode().
  


• Corrected an initialization problem that sometimes caused a false error message about the application consuming all available memory.
  


• Added support for native mode devices and the ability to build native-mode libraries.
  


• Added out-of-range warnings for Delay() and Sleep().
  


• Added support for defining Enum constants.
  


• Added support for Based procedures.
  


• Added support for default parameter values in procedures.
  


• Added optional support for conditionals in project and argument files.
  


• Added support for enabling/disabling warning messages in the source code.
  


• Added support for automatic value-to-string conversion for the & operator and Debug.Print.
  


• Added support for using the operator + for strings like operator &.
  


• Fixed a problem with LCase() when it had a constant parameter.
  


• Fixed an access violation related to use of While..Wend.
  

See the ZBasic website for the complete history of ZBasic compiler changes.

The updated firmware version 2.5 for the ZX-24e, ZX-24ae, and ZX-24pe is available from the ZBasic Firmware page and is required for some of the new capabilities listed above. The following enhancements and fixes have been incorporated into the firmware:

• Added support for enabling and disabling interrupts and updating the RTC.
  


• Added support for GetQueueSpace().
  


• Added support for setting the heap limit.
  


• Added support for a fourth parameter on CmdSPI() regulating receive timing.
  


• Removed the limit on heap allocation size.
  


• The ZVM is now built using the ZX Library except for the ZX-24e
  


• Added support for the ZX-24pe.
  


• Corrected a problem in the PWM timer programming.
  


• Corrected a problem in the code for terminating capture in devices with timers 3, 4 and 5.
  


• Fixed a problem in float-to-string conversion where the value 0.002 came out as 1.1e-3.
  


• Corrected a problem where DefineCom() on Com1 didn't work.
  

See the ZBasic website for the complete history of ZBasic firmware changes.

My thanks to Don for this update.

Mike