Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!unix.cis.pitt.edu!pitt!willett!ForthNet From: ForthNet@willett.pgh.pa.us (ForthNet articles from GEnie) Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth Subject: polyFORTH Message-ID: <2889.UUL1.3#5129@willett.pgh.pa.us> Date: 16 Jun 91 13:07:50 GMT Organization: (n.) to be organized. But that's not important right now. Lines: 123 Category 7, Topic 7 Message 6 Sun Jun 16, 1991 D.RUFFER [Dennis] at 01:20 EDT Re: lm03_cif@troi.cc.rochester.edu (Larry Moss) > I'm not incredibly pleased with PolyFORTH or the people on the > phone. Well, as Jack said, you are going to hear about it soon. I work for Forth, Inc. and somewhere around here I let it slip that I work on their polyFORTH systems. I am _very_ concerned that you seem to have gotten the brush off by our hotline personnel and I _will_ talk to him on Monday ;). However, in his defense, I might ask when you called? If it was last week, well he was teaching a bunch of people in an introductory class and that gives him little time to answer phones. No excuse, I know, but you might try again this week. Yes, we do make money teaching Forth, and I highly recommend the course. On the other hand, installation questions should not require a support contract. Did you just buy the system? In which case you do have support for I think 30 days (or something like that). If it is an old system, that someone else has already gotten installation support for, then I must ask how many new users we should help for the sale of one system. Sorry if that question seems somehow to be the wrong attitude, but support and development costs are the kinds of details I have to deal with. Now, about pF/FB320, let me first say that I had nothing whatsoever to do with it and I haven't even used it myself. So my answers probably won't mean much, but I'll give it an attempt anyways. ;) > No low program RAM I've never seen this message on any other pF so I assume it is FB320 specific. I'll have to figure that one out from the system itself, and have someone get back to you with an answer. I'll also have them give you some suggestions about your particular setup. > Error spawning shell This sounds like a problem shelling to DOS. There are two things that typically cause this. First may be that you don't have enough RAM left to spawn another copy of COMMAND.COM _and_ PF.COM. Do you have any _large_ TSR's loaded? The second has to do with the location of COMMAND.COM. If it is not in your root directory, the pF can't find it. I am ashamed to say that we have never "fixed" that particular problem, but the work around is very easy. Just copy your COMMAND.COM to the root directory of the drive that you are running pF from. Please let me know what caused it, since we are perpetuating whatever problem you are having into _all_ our products and I need to squash it rsn. On the towers code, I will refrain from telling you _how_ to code it (:let me know if you want to see my version:). Rather, I'm looking for things that would cause the problems you mention. > : COPY ( X Y Z -- X Y Z X Y Z ) >R 2DUP R@ -ROT R> ; Hmm, you might check that R@ is doing what you think it does. That is a pretty recent addition to pF and your system might not have it. It may not be giving you an error because there is an R@ defined in the system, but it may not be doing what you expect. On the system I have on my computer right now (pF8086/MSD) R@ is defined in the electives on the same block (29) as RECURSE is, so you might want to check that both are doing the right thing. Although, I can't think of anything we may have had with RECURSE as its name. Your comment about both the towers and your number input routines not working make me suspect that this might be the case. If so, then the following will fix you right up: CODE R@ ( - n) FORTH ' I USE > : BACK 8 EMIT ; While this _will_ work in /DOS or /BIOS display modes, from the sounds of things you are using /NATIVE where 8 is just another character. A better definition that will work in everything except /DOS (where it can't position the cursor) is: : BACK L# @ C# @ 1- TAB ; > \ FIX ASCII SO IT WORKS INSIDE OF : DEFINITIONS If your system has ASCII, then it also should have [ASCII]. Just like ' and ['], in polyFORTH you need one for both the compiling and interpreting modes. pF has always been down on "STATE smart" words, and your version of ASCII is one of "them". In case you don't have it, here is the "dumb" way to do it: : [ASCII] ASCII [COMPILE] LITERAL ; IMMEDIATE > If I ever manage to get this to run I'll need to learn how to use > the target compiler next. Hmm, and you think you are having problems now. Again, I can't recommend the Forth, Inc. programming courses enough for those who want to come up to speed as quickly as possible. The target compiler is covered in the Advanced course quite thoroughly, and unless you have a pF guru handy, you are most certainly going to need some help. I'll try to answer questions as you figure out how to ask them, but the target compiler is certainly _not_ one of those things you just pick up and use. It took me years before I had a really good handle on how it works. Even now (after 10+ years) it can still bite me from time to time. However, you need to know how if your are going to make the FB320 jump through hoops like it should, so fire away and I'll try to help. > The examples in teh manual for that don't seemto work either. From the Reference Manual or from the CPU Supplement? Where the Reference Manual is generic to all pF's, the CPU Supplement is specific to the FB320. Although I've seen worse things than examples not working in our versions, I know how annoying that can be to our customers. Usually it is only a configuration problem, but I will have to look into that one also. BTW, are you going to the Rochester Forth Conference? I will be there Thursday night. If you are there, look for where Sergei is going to be doing the GEnie RTC from. I will be the one running around trying to get it set up in time. Maybe we can find some time to talk about what you are doing. Later! {B-{)> DaR ----- This message came from GEnie via willett. You *cannot* reply to the author using e-mail. Please post a follow-up article, or use any instructions the author may have included (USMail addresses, telephone #, etc.). Report problems to: dwp@willett.pgh.pa.us _or_ uunet!willett!dwp