Re: ColorForth in colorForth...

On Apr 8, 2005 9:17 AM, howerd.oakford <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hi Albert + friends,
> 
> I would be delighted if you would disassemble and re-assemble the binary
> image cfdos4.blk !  ( blocks 0 to 17 )
> Its available from my website www.inventio.co.uk/cfdos.htm .
> I think I have got the assembler files for it, but its development has been
> long and complicated...
> 
> I agree with all of the recent batch of posts here, from Nick, Albert, Mark,
> Chris, Ray and Philip.
> 
> Creating a group of collaberating programmers is never easy. We definitely
> need the right tools for this.

Setting up a wiki seems like the best thing to do. Since there already
is one, I'm gonna be adding

> My motivation to create cfdos.com was to drag colorForth source and binaries
> into the WinDOS world, at least until we have full Internet connectivity and
> the ability to run on "nearly all" PCs. At the very least I can name and
> archive different versions...
> 
> Around October 2004 I published cfdos3.1 - an attempt to make the colorForth
> names closer to ANS.
> Whatever your views on ANS Forth per se, I think it is foolish to use ANS
> names in colorForth with different functionality.
> So I renamed them by hand-editing the binary :
> 
> Was     is now called. function
> .
> ?dup    /dup    compiler - decides whether a dup is needed
> -       invert  -1 XOR
> stop    /flop   turns off the floppy disk drive motor
> or      xor     bitwise XOR ( New in V3 )
> --      or      bitwise OR    ( New in V3 )
> 
> This was ( as I suspected it would be, ) a big mistake.
> 
> So in cfdos4.0 I put the original binary back and re-defined the offending
> words. This is less efficient at run-time, but meant that the high level
> source could be ported to other systems. This allowed me to support other
> binaries, such as the 800x600 pixel video versions.
> 
> What became clear was that the next step is to port colorForth to
> colorForth. I have done most of the Editor - but I must add, with the
> essential assistance of many others. ( Please follow the link above for
> credits ). To create a coherent system, I have gathered other people's
> applications and made the necessary adjustments for them to run with my
> published system.
> 
> There is an inherent conflict : how to create compatibility without limiting
> freedom. cfdos3.1 would have been fine if my name was Bill Gates and I had
> the resources to persuade everyone to adopt my binaries, source and
> standards. But I can't ( and shouldn't ) force others to follow me - this is
> after all a collaborative effort, so I back-tracked.
> 
> I have no inclination to change assembler files and re-assemble.
> ( I have an irrational aversion to assembler ).
> Maybe its because I do that sort of thing for a living ( in C mostly ),
> or maybe its because I want to try to find an alternative.
> We already have file based OS's...
> 
> ColorForth is magic. I will definitely keep investigating it until I find
> out why my code for the Editor written in colorForth is so much better than
> the same code written in conventional Forth. Part of it is that a second
> attempt will always be better, but part of it is the lean environment which
> keeps the code lean.
> 
> So a Mocha Latte to the first person to publish a colorForth compiler in
> colorForth. This should be the next major part of the project.

I started on something like that, but unfortunately it got lost in a move.

I think Mark is working on something though?

I will write my specific thoughts on the wiki later :)

> BTW please keep all variables and compiled code out of blocks 0 to 17 - one
> of
> the problems with the current colorForths is that the binary image changes
> as soon as you run it. ( I developed chk.com which calculates a checksum but
> avoids the variables - I think ).
> I have already got "key" coded in colorForth. The PC keyboard hardware is
> very fiddly, and Chuck's assembler for this correspondingly clever, but
> undocumented ( cfdos4.blk block 196 ). I haven't documented it either...
> yet.
> 
> Progress should be slow and organic,
> 
> Regards
> 
> Howerd  8^)
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Albert van der Horst [mailto:[email protected]]
> Sent: 07 April 2005 23:13
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: [colorforth] New Linux 4word
> 
> On Thu, Apr 07, 2005 at 06:17:04PM +0200, Fr?d?ric DUBOIS wrote:
> [snip]
> 
> Is there is a binary dump from the latest officialy colorforth?
> I would love to regenerate an assembler file, like I did for
> retroforth. We could proceed from there.
> 
> It is a good workout for the
> computer_intelligence_assembler_disassembler.
> 
> >  Amicalement,
> >   Astrobe
> 
> Groetjes Albert.
> 
> --
> Albert van der Horst,Oranjestr 8,3511 RA UTRECHT,THE NETHERLANDS
> Economic growth -- like all pyramid schemes -- ultimately falters.
> [email protected] http://home.hccnet.nl/a.w.m.van.der.horst
> 
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> 


-- 
Chris Walton
arke on irc.freenode.net