karl@sugar.uu.net (Karl Lehenbauer) (01/18/89)
I recently downloaded Peter Appleman's public domain Forth for the Amiga (A4TH) and I thought I'd tell you all a bit about it. It includes full source, including kernel and metacompiler source in Forth, hence it can completely recompile and reassemble itself. It is well-integrated with the ROM Kernel, has really really nice C-style structures including structure fetch and store words (s@ and s!) that are object-size independent (up to 32-bits). It has a forth block-style disk interface as well as the ability to read Amiga text files. It includes a copy of one of Crunch's gadget demos and the dotty window rewritten in Forth, so you can see how windows, gadgets, etc, are manipulated. Library support is a bit thin. I have been working in this area. There are some rough spots, like it opens its own 640X200 window and pretty much assumes the window will stay that size, even though it has an unlimited resize gadget. Worst of all, although the output of the metacompiler is relocatable in the standard Amiga binary load format, definitions created during a run are absolute, hence for the moment one must compile the source to everything they want to use during the run. I load everything, the assembler, two screen editors, decompiler, print package, debugger, code locator and a bunch of other stuff. Even with all that, it still takes less than a minute to start up, and someone (maybe me) will address this issue, as the JForth and MultiForth people have had to. Anyway, the number for the board is 703-442-8695, 300/1200/2400 baud, 24 hours. They have a lot of stuff on there besides this, too. -- -- uunet!sugar!karl | "We've been following your progress with considerable -- karl@sugar.uu.net | interest, not to say contempt." -- Zaphod Beeblebrox IV -- Usenet BBS (713) 438-5018
kjohn@richp1.uucp (John Kjellman Counsulatant) (01/24/89)
In article <3302@sugar.uu.net> karl@sugar.uu.net (Karl Lehenbauer) writes: >I recently downloaded Peter Appleman's public domain Forth for the Amiga >(A4TH) and I thought I'd tell you all a bit about it. It includes full >source, including kernel and metacompiler source in Forth, hence it can >completely recompile and reassemble itself. >[..... you know :-) ] Could someone please forward this package to Bob Page so the whole USENET Amiga community could get a copy???????? Thanx, KJohn P.S. Glad to see the A2500 is finally :-) available, I hope to get one by the end of March (so I can get back to all the hacking fun :-). | If my employer paid me for my opinions, they'd be out of business :-). | |-------------------- "In hell they word-wrap using vi" --------------------| | KJohn. the man without a machine ........ :-( | |>>>>> kjohn@richp1 or [ purdue | cs.ubc | mcdchg ] ! richp1 ! kjohn <<<<<|
karl@sugar.uu.net (Karl Lehenbauer) (01/27/89)
In article <3302@sugar.uu.net> I wrote about A4th, a public domain Amiga forth and how it had been made available for uucp and FTP from uunet and why it was not ready for distribution to comp.sources.amiga, to which kjohn@richp1.uucp (John Kjellman Counsulatant) replied (171@richsun.UUCP): > Could someone please forward this package to Bob Page so the > whole USENET Amiga community could get a copy???????? The usenet maps say richsun is connected to uunet, so *you* can get a copy via the instructions I gave in the announcement for uunet subscribers. As for the reset of the usenet community, for anyone who can't FTP or otherwise arrange to get a4th, email me and we'll work something out. I hope to post it to comp.sources.amiga within a few weeks at the most, like after the rest of the bugs with text file inclusion and forth multitasking (task-held requester the first time you do a 'task: foo foo activate') have been fixed, and after more documentation is written and/or acquired. As it is, it'd be an almost guaranteed turnoff for Forth for any non-Forth-guru who tried to use it. -- -- uunet!sugar!karl | "We've been following your progress with considerable -- karl@sugar.uu.net | interest, not to say contempt." -- Zaphod Beeblebrox IV -- Usenet BBS (713) 438-5018