Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!killer!texbell!uhnix1!sugar!karl
From: karl@sugar.uu.net (Karl Lehenbauer)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: PD Amiga Forth (with source) on East Coast Forth Board
Message-ID: <3302@sugar.uu.net>
Date: 18 Jan 89 13:47:55 GMT
Organization: Sugar Land Unix - Houston, TX
Lines: 31

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.
-- 
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