GEnie@willett.UUCP (ForthNet articles from GEnie) (12/21/89)
Message 29 Wed Dec 20, 1989 R.BERKEY [Robert] at 07:49 PST A thirty-page ad interesting cover to cover: that's the Winter 1989 Catalogue from MicroProcessor Engineering Ltd. in Southampton, UK. EuroFORML will be held at Southampton, 12/13/14 October 1990. MPE Modular Forth is composed of segment-sized .OBJ modules for the 80x86, automatically linked together. It: "provides separate compilation of source modules, with early or late binding as appropriate...The new 2.3x release includes object module linking (to C, PASCAL, ASSEMBLER, etc)...It is suitable for large team projects...Sample bindings are included for DesQView, Btrieve, and MetaWINDOWS...The flexible three-mode multi-tasker can even run in the background when other DOS programs have been spawned by the SHELL command...(two pre-emptive interrupt/timer/event driven, one cooperative round-robin)." Text windows, overlays, glossary generator, GEM graphics interface--the list seems to go on and on. Support is available "by telephone, and by the closed MPE conference on CIX." The system source code is also obtainable, "all in all about 3.5 megabytes of code". The Modular Forth Source Libraries is off-the-shelf tools for Modular Forth. Included are a serial-line communications package with XMODEM protocol; HELP generator for applications; and HUMAN, a programming language readable as English. The Debugger is part of the library. "Any of the Forth or 8086 registers may be modified at any time". It features high and low level: breakpoints, tracepoints, single stepping, and tracing. "The display windows can be closed during execution so that data displayed by the application will not be destroyed." Other software development environments are offered for Atari, OS9, and one marketed as for personal use on the 80x86 (50 pounds British). The company is a bit of a smorgasbord, offering some non-Forth books, Kaypro computers, out-of-house software such as ForthMacs and Norton Utilities 4.5., and custom-programming/consulting. The hardware oriented side of the company offers an extensive set of cross-compilers, with an accent on the RTX. They offer a dozen processor boards that their target compilers will target to. "MPE runs courses and seminars throughout the year" and instructors will also go to a customer's premises. There are three interesting Forth books listed I haven't noticed before: _Forth--an Applications Approach_ Toppen 20 pounds An introduction to Forth for people who have work to do. Based around small applications, this book will probably suit many practical programmers. Liked by a customer who has evaluated nearly all the Forth books available. _Forth Applications in Engineering and Industry_ Matthews 35 pounds If you are starting out in the field of real time control of real hardware under Forth, then this book is for you! This text covers most aspects of real time control under Forth, from the very basics of what Forth is, through to control loops and digital implementations of analogue filters. _BT Forth Documentation Standards_ British Telecom 5 pounds A specification for the layout of Forth source code. Generated by the BT Martello team at Martlesham as a result of training Forth programmers, it aims to provide an outline that can be followed by newcomers to Forth, as well as providing standards for experienced Forth users. They also carry Koopman's _Stack Computers The New Wave_. 32.5 pounds. MicroProcessor Eng Ltd 133 Hill Lane . Shirley Southampton . SO1 5AF International Tel#: +44 703 631441 FAX: 0703 339691 EMAIL: on Telecom Gold to mailbox 74:WKK272 US Dealer: AMICS (716) 461-9187, contact B. Naschanchik It might be worth a call just to get on their mailing list. ----- This message came from GEnie via willett through a semi-automated program. Report problems to: 'uunet!willett!dwp' or 'willett!dwp@gateway.sei.cmu.edu'