Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!tektronix!reed!tessi!bobl
From: bobl@tessi.UUCP (Bob Lewis)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth
Subject: Re: Novix chip with Computer Cowboys software by Calvin Moore
Message-ID: <460@ghidrah.tessi.UUCP>
Date: 3 May 88 18:10:29 GMT
References: <17430@glacier.STANFORD.EDU>
Reply-To: bobl@ghidrah.UUCP (Bob Lewis)
Organization: TSSI, Beaverton, Oregon
Lines: 54

In article <17430@glacier.STANFORD.EDU> jbn@glacier.STANFORD.EDU (John B. Nagle) writes:
>
>      I just saw the Novix chip running under the control of the silliest
>user interface I have ever encountered.  This thing has a programmer-oriented
>interface based on three (3) buttons and a color CRT.  No keyboard.  The
>three buttons are labelled R, G, and B, and the top line of the CRT shows
>eight menu selections in the various color combinations obtainable by combining
>red, green, and blue.  The keyboard is interpreted in a chord sense, so that
>if you push G and B at the same time, this is interpreted as violet and the
>violet menu item is selected.

How you get *eight* selections?  Are you sure it's not seven?  Think about it.

>The basic concept seems to be that one scrolls
>forward or backward by screen, then by line, then by word, then by character,
>and then selects the desired character in the character set by scrolling
>through the character set.

Anybody want to do an X port of this critter?  B-)

>      Incidentally, the board for this system is about 4"x4", and, for no
>obvious compelling reason, has ICs on both sides.  The system consists of
>this board, a 3.5" diskette drive, and a color TTL-interfaced CRT.
>
>      The Forth implementation lacks DO and LOOP.  There's an absolutely
>hysterical bug: multiply only works for even multipliers.  This is documented;
>the documentation claims that "most multipliers are even", you see.

Yes, and some user interfaces are decidedly odd.

I suppose that in most cases one could use (forgive me if my FORTH is a
little rusty):

	: *SAFE 2* * 2/ ;

But seriously, what was this system for?  Why was somebody trying to produce
a "programmer-oriented interface" that didn't use a keyboard?  Maybe its
ultimately intended for some kind of environment where a keyboard would not
be available or so infrequently used (for servicing or diagnostics, say) that
its cost couldn't be justified.  On the other hand, this thing has a diskette
drive and a *color* monitor.  Most unusual.  Perhaps some sort of advertising
display?

There has been at least one other low-bandwidth FORTH system that I can
think of, the Rockwell AIM 65.  It was designed for low cost industrial
control applications.  It didn't look like it was a whole lot of fun to
develop on, but at least it had a keyboard!  Its weakness was a single-line
40(?)-character display, although I think a serial interface was an option.
(Aside: Anybody seen one of these things lately?)

Maybe the system John is describing is supposed to merge with the AIM 65!  B-)

	- Bob Lewis
	  bobl@tessi.uucp