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From: ForthNet@willett.pgh.pa.us (ForthNet articles from GEnie)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth
Subject: PYGMY Forth
Message-ID: <2212.UUL1.3#5129@willett.pgh.pa.us>
Date: 10 Jan 91 04:17:10 GMT
Organization: (n.) to be organized.  But that's not important right now.
Lines: 51

Category 1,  Topic 45
Message 59        Wed Jan 09, 1991
F.SERGEANT [Frank]           at 02:54 CST
 

 To Tom Schotland
 I think I saw some messages from you on both GEnie (via RCFB) & the CC  bbs
about Forth & the 8051.  I composed a reply and almost posted it,  but thought
better of it.  I was afraid I might talk myself into  porting Pygmy Forth to
the 8051.  But, of course, I can't resist  replying to a message that names
me!

 Pygmy Forth is customized for PCs & clones (PC/MS-DOS 8088/80x8x  machines). 
It is available for downloading everywhere (I suppose).   Look for version
1.3.  The file name on GEnie is PYGMY13.ZIP.  I think  of it as a small, but
complete Forth.  It allows up to 15 (or perhaps  many more) DOS files open at
one time.  Their origins are at different  BLOCK numbers, which makes it easy
to copy to and from the different  files, etc.  You can specify a set of files
to be opened automatically.   It can read and write any format files, but
source code loading is done  from BLOCK files.  It has some neat features from
cmFORTH such as the  COMPILER vocabulary.  All immediate words are in that
vocabulary.  Thus  there is no word IMMEDIATE.  It makes it easy to have, for
example, two  versions of the word  ."  one is in FORTH and executes outside
of colon  definitions and the other has the same name but is in COMPILER and 
compiles the string for execution at run-time.  This eliminates the  need for
abominations such as  .(.  

 It is a COMPLETE Forth.  No, I don't mean it has everything that could  be
present in a Forth; I mean you can use it when it arrives.  It comes  with
full source code, meta-compiler, editor, and assembler.  Modifying  it and
meta-compiling a new version is especially simple.  This lets  you change the
aspects of it that you disagree with me about.  For  example, it uses the
sensible approach of having ( u) FOR ... NEXT   perform the loop  u  times,
rather than  u+1  times.  0 FOR ... NEXT  performs the loop zero times.  But,
anyone who wants the u+1 and 0+1  version can make the changes and meta-
compile it his way.

 No.  It does not run on the 8051.  I have, however, made a version to  run
out of ROM for a Zilog Super-8.  I expect one day to port it to  various other
processors.  When?  Who knows.  There's no point in  waiting on me.

 What do you want in the way of a Forth for the 8051?  What would you  do with
it?  What amounts of ROM & RAM would you have available?  Talk  to it from a
PC?  Etc?

  -- Frank
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