New features:
- Introduced new $ syntax and back-end logic for fast lookups into AX Custom
Data. This syntax works identically to attribute access syntax with type
specifiers expected to be present when accessing non float data. For
literal path names, this can be up to x20 faster than using the lookup()
functions.
- New External Variable AST node, Code Generation/Visitor methods and
internal intrinsic functions for processing Custom Data lookups using $
syntax.
- Added a --print-ast command to the vdb_ax binary to output the built AST
from the provided code snippet.
Improvements:
- Removed the uint64_t LLVM Type specialization as all back-end values are
signed.
- Introduced a uintptr_t LLVM Type specialization for accessing pointers
to typed data.
- Consolidated attribute type checking with external variable type checking
in Compiler.cc into verifyTypedAccesses().
- Minor re-work to the PointDefaultModifier for conversion of default
attributes.
API Changes:
- ax::print() now takes a const ast::Tree reference.
Houdini:
- External variable $ syntax can now be used to access parameters on the AX
SOP e.g. ch("parm") -> $parm
- Known path lookups using supported Houdini channel functions (e.g. ch())
or AX lookup functions are optimized using the new external variable
syntax for speed gains of up to x20.
- Added optimised access to all available floating points Global and Local
Node HScript variables such as $F, $T etc.
- Back-ticks are no longer supported as the code is evaluated as a raw
string. This is to support optimizations for ch() and Houdini HScript $
parameters. These can be embedded without the need to re-compile the
string parameter, even if they are time dependent.
- Verbified the AX SOP so that it can be used in compile blocks and as a
verb through python.
