Notices by Charles Childers (crc@mastodon.social)

Testing command line tooting via gopherdon and retro forth

The ISO for the standalone x86 #retro #forth is now up at http://forthworks.com/retro/download/retro.iso.zip and gopher://forthworks.com/9/retro/download/retro.iso.zip

The ISO includes the GRUB source code, which covers the GPL requirements. This bloats the ISO a bit, but it's better than having a separate download to deal with.

#retro #forth 2018.1 source release is now out at http://forthworks.com/retro

Just a few quick notes regarding binaries:

- Binaries for Windows (native & .NET) are provided
- Binaries for DOS (real mode & DPMI) are provided
- The updated macOS & iOS versions will be available within a couple of days

With this done, I'll be focusing on documentation, examples, and getting it packaged for more systems. (Looking at FreeBSD ports & NetBSD pkgsrc currently)

I've managed to build a working(*) #retro 12 for 16-bit 8086. It fits (barely) into a single 64K memory segment. It's also *very* slow, as one might expect for a 32-bit virtual machine running on a 16-bit architecture..

The next step is to implement a virtual memory system so I can have more than 10k cells (the standard image + input buffer uses 8,575 cells).

(*) strings aren't working fully due to insufficient space for the rotating temp string buffers.

#retrocomputing #dos #forth

As a bit of retrocomputing fun, here's a build of #retro #forth for DOS. Requires 32-bit protected mode; I haven't managed to build a working 16-bit executable yet.

http://forthworks.com/retro/download/RETRO-DOS.ZIP or gopher://forthworks.com/9/retro/download/RETRO-DOS.ZIP

The (n)curses interface for #retro #forth is now in the repository. Working on finishing #gopherdon server cleanup now.

Working on an (n)curses based interface for #retro #forth, modeled after the original interface from when I took over development about 17 years ago.

https://mastodon.social/media/Vnc2FWoGJ4semz9P788

I'm hoping to finish work on the server tonight or tomorrow, at which point I can spend some time finishing the initial iOS client. Both parts will be opwn source, under the ISC license. #gopherdon

Just committed a slightly modified version of Rob Judd's Free Pascal implementation of the #Retro #Forth virtual machine & basic I/O.

@jk I've thought about doing something like this...

Ok, the #ios #gopher client update is now waiting for review.

Would there be interest in a public beta process (via Testflight) in 2018?

@ajroach42 Here's a screenshot. I'm mostly doing this so I'll be able to interact with Mastodon from within Retro. https://mastodon.social/media/XobVB27991l8LgP_cFM

@deutrino GreenArrays? http://www.greenarraychips.com/

@ajroach42 @djsundog I like Forth due it it being fundamentally simple (to implement, extend, and use), though becoming proficient with it requires a good deal of care and time.

In my case, I was able to learn enough to write small programs very quickly, but becoming comfortable enough to use it quickly and confidently took years.

For me, it was worth the time though, as I now have a language closely tailored to my thought processes, that I can (re)implement and change as my needs evolve.

Well today has been spent fixing #retro #forth on #macOS 10.12.6. It's working on the test server I had spun up this morning (prepping to shut that down now, before I get charged for it...).

The newest build is at http://forthworks.com/temp/RETRO12.dmg.zip or gopher://forthworks.com/9/temp/RETRO12.dmg.zip