2010-02-19, 08:33 PM
britlion Wrote:I note that the compiler uses the Spectrum ROM square root routine. This routine is hideously slow. It actually calculates x^(0.5) instead, and takes ages about it. The Newton-Raphson method would be a lot faster, and pretty easy to put in.
If you are willing to sacrifice accuracy, an integer square root would be faster still. For a lot of situations, an integer root would be just fine - for example, if I had to calculate the nearest of two objects on screen, I'm going to have to use pythagoras' theorum to calculate distances. [ A^2 = B^2 + C^2 ] that needs square roots to make a distance. But probably the nearest whole pixel would be a perfectly good enough result!
If there's no "code license restrictions" (and I guess not), these functions can be added "as is" in the compilers library, and inserted with an #include directive.
What do you think? :roll: