cifgen.mi

\input texinfo
@setfilename figforthversion
@afourpaper
@settitle Generating ciforth's
@setchapternewpage odd

@titlepage
@title ciforth Manual
A system to generate 
a ciforth together with
its documentation.


@author Albert van der Horst 
Dutch Forth Workshop

@page
@c @vskip Opt plus 1fill
Copyright @copyright{{}} 2000 Dutch Forth Workshop

Permission is granted to copy with attribution.
Program is protected by the GNU Public License.
@end titlepage

@chapter Overview
forthvar({fig86.gnr}) is a system to generate ciforth in all its
configuration's.
This is a configurators manual.
For each ciforth there is a corresponding documentation;
there is however just this one documentation for the generic 
system.
It is assumed that you are familiar with Forth and with ciforth
in particular.
Linux is used for a development system, 
and the main tool is forthprog({m4}) , the macro preprocessor.
This generates an assembler source 
file and a raw documentation file
out of the single generic source, controlled by a configuration
file.
In addition there is a file with blocks, that is common to all Forth's.

For further processing you need an assembler, such as forthprog({nasm})
and one or more documentation tools, such as forthprog({info}). The raw
documentation file can be ordered only by a more sophisticated tool
than the usual forthprog({sort}), called forthprog({ssort}). The
particulars of all this depend on the actual configuration chosen. It
contains in itself some provision such that it can be loaded on
any of the ciforth systems, independantly of whether they are 16 or 32
bits or whether they can or cannot handle direct access of the video memory. 

@chapter Non-technical background.
@section                        Legalese
The Forth's called ciforth are made available through the
DFW .
All publications of the DFW are available under GPL, the GNU public license.
The file COPYING containing the legal expression of these lines must accompagny it.

This forthsamp({fig86.gnr}) system is protected by GPL. 
This applies to the generic source, the macro files and the Forth 
source in the block file.

@subsection Copyright of the ciforth's generated by this tool.
A ciforth generated by fig86.gnr is probably not a derived work
(a thesis written in TeX is not a derived work from TeX).
So DFW separately claims copyright for the different versions of
ciforth generated by her using this tool.

The following is present in all documentation of ciforth's:
forthquotation
Because Forth is ``programming by extending the language'' the GPL
could be construed to mean that systems based on ciforth
always are legally obliged to make the source available. 
But we consider this ``fair use in the Forth sense''.
forthendquotation

In addition to the GPL the DFW states the following:

forthquotation
The GPL is interpreted in the sense that a system based on ciforth
and intended to serve a particular purpose, that purpose not being a
``general purpose Forth system'', is fair use of the system, even if it
could accomplish everything ciforth could, under the condition that the
ciforth it is based on is available in accordance to the GPL rules,
and this is made known to the user of the derived system.
Consequently, for these systems the obligation to make the source available 
does not apply.
forthendquotation

@section Legal matters
My extensions are GPL-ed or libary GPL-ed.
I transferred the copyright to the Dutch Forth Workshop, a foundation that
supports Forth and defends the GPL.
The original figforth is public domain and is still available.
@section                         Rationale 

What you find here is a Forth for the Intel 86. It is a figforth
as of old.Complying in detail with the Fig glossary, which is available 
in electronicfrom for the first time in history.
The motivation for having this type of Forth available follows from its
characteristics. It is available as an assembler source, and it is an
indirect threaded Forth. 
An assembler source has distinct advantages for getting started from
nothing. An engineer might balk at the description of how to use a meta
compiler, but feels at ease with a (much larger) assembler manual.
Although speed is currently in fashion, using subroutine threaded Forth's
with optimisers, indirect threading is the preferred choice for some
applications. I did this work, because I needed it. 
I have also the firm belief that an optimiser on an indirect threaded system
has more information to work with and can ultimately outperform any
other system in speed.

@section History
@subsection Deviations

Some non-substantial deviation of the original FIG source have been made
for good reasons. 

The assumption in using forthcodeni({OFFSET}) was that you have two identical floppy drives
and no hard disk. That is nowadays extremely unlikely. Instead I put forthcodeni({OFFSET}) 
to good use to screen off a part of the floppy that must not be used (such
as an MSDOS directory or the hard disk part that contains the forth system.)

The FIG filosofy is that sectors, blocks and screens must be compatible, but
may be all different. The original 8086 FIG had one sector for a block. I
changed that in having one block for a screen. This is a boon for those
wanting to ISO-fy the sources.

The way I coded the character I/O points ahead to vectoring forthcodeni({TYPE}) and forthcodeni({EXPECT}) 
rather than forthcodeni({EMIT}) and forthcodeni({KEY}) . This way I can have the host system handle the rub
out key. 

I added generic words forthcodeni({BIOS}) , forthcodeni({BDOS}) and forthcodeni({LINOS}) . 
(See subsection The joy of genericity.)

@section Evolution of ciforth
The first version of 
ciforth  was in fact the 
figforth for the 8086 
that was put in the framework of this manual.
By adding a 32 bits macro file, programming 
I/O for Linux, programming I/O  with non-obsolete MSDOS calls
and a way to switch to protected mode,
this figforth came available in all ciforth configurations.
The rcs version numbers of the generic file fig86.gnr 
are in the 2-branch and the latest version is available still.
(The 1-branch was experimental).
This version has however an manual not split between a generic and
a user part. But the user part of the manual forthemph({is})
generated from the generic source.

The second and third 
versions of ciforth (rcs branch 3 and 4)
are generated  according to this manual.
As you see there is little pertinent information about these forth's
in this manual.
All the information you need to use it is in the user manual,
generated with that version.
The second version is a ISO compatible system.
The third version is how I think a Forth should be, 
based on technical criteria and putting all compatibility issues aside.

@section Acknowledgment
ciforth is based on the work of Charlie Krajewski and Thomas Newman, Hayward, Ca.
that is available via taygeta. And of course kudo's to FIG.
This work and all of figforth is public domain. 
@section                         Source
In practice the GPL 
 means (note: this is an explanation and has no legal value!)

They may be
further reproduced and distributed subject to the following conditions:

The three file comprising it must be kept together and in particular 
the reference section with the World Wide Web sites.


This Forth builts on figforth.
It is based on the work of Charlie Krajewski and Thomas Newman, Hayward, Ca.
that is available via taygeta.

You still can obtain the original version
 that is public domain according to the following statement:

forthquotation
All publications of the Forth Interest Group are public domain. They may be
further reproduced and distributed by inclusion of this credit notice: 

This publication has been made available by the Forth Interest Group, 

              P. O. Box 1105,  San Carlos, Ca 94070
forthendquotation

The maintainer can be reached at forthmail({ciforth@@spenarnc.xs4all.nl})     
and the latest sources are at 
forthurl({http://home.hccnet.nl/a.w.m.van.der.horst/fig86gnr.html})

@chapter Background.
If you are a Unix and a Forth guru, you can skip this chapter.
_VERBOSE_({ If you think you are, 
you can read this chapter and discover you are not.})
This chapter is about pervading concepts and 
how tools are used, conceptually.

@section Orthogonality
The concept of orthogonality is central to this effort.
Orthogonality means that different aspects of configuration 
(int this case)
are made independant of each other. 
For example, ciforth can be bootable or started by MSDOS,
it can be assembled by forthprog({nasm}) or by forthprog({MASM.EXE}) .
These two choices can be made indepedantly from each other,
and every combination ought to work. 
Each choice is associated with file with macros for forthprog({m4}) , 
so ideally if you need to modify how forthprog({nasm})  
assembly source is generated to you only need to change the file 
forthfile({nasm.m4}).

This is, of course, as far as it goes. 
Try as you may to separate all information about header layout
in the forthfile({header.m4}) configuration file, 
a change to the order of the fields in a header will certainly have
it impact at certain places in the source.

@section Metacompilation is outdated
Meta compilation, the generation of a new version of a Forth system
by ``simular tools as compilation'', was invented for the cassette based
computer system of the late seventies. 
There may be a motivation for using metacompilation to generate
a similar forth for a forthemph({different}) processor or system.
This would properly be called cross-compilation, by the way.
In a half-decent (or better) disk operating system like MSDOS the use
of meta-compilation is a mistake at the management level. 

We want our Forth to be able to generate standalone programs anyway.
(a forthdefi({turnkey}) facility.)
So what do we need
forthenumerate
forthitem
A facility to save a running system with all what is loaded on it,
in the configuration it currently has.
forthitem
A facility to remove parts of a running system, that are not needed
for an application after it has been build. (E.g. the assembler.)
forthitem
A facility to optimise some parts of a system. (Then remove the,
possibly large, optimiser.).
forthendenumerate

If you have the first facility,
you can build a powerful Forth from a small kernel and regular source code.
If you have all of them, you can build a truely,
optimal Forth from a small kernel. 
You need not ``a similar tool as compilation'', 
you just need ``compilation'' .

The forthcodeni({SAVE-SYSTEM}) facility of course requires 
in depth knowledge of the operating system. 
This doesn't mean it is cumbersome or difficult.
Under linux we need 
forthexample(
{HEX
S" newforth" BLOCK-FILE $!  BLOCK-INIT   ( Abuse block file)
HERE FENCE !   LATEST 0 +ORIGIN !  ( Extend the system )
8049000 CONSTANT SM     ( This is in depth knowledge)
U0 @   0 +ORIGIN   100    CMOVE  ( Save user variables)
HERE SM - CONSTANT FSIZE   ( Length of file, incl.header)
HERE BM - SM 44 + !    FSIZE SM 20 + ! ( Patch header)
BLOCK-HANDLE @ 8049000   FSIZE  5 LINOS ?LINUX-ERROR ( Write)
BLOCK-EXIT
})

@section How m4 is used.
The unix macroprocessor forthprog({m4}) is very powerful indeed. 
Testimony is that the description of its usage in here
is longer that its man-pages.
You know 
forthprog({m4}) is a text substitution tool. 
A macro is like a function. In the macro call the text is replaced by 
the text present in the function. 
Within the text the placeholders for the parameters are replaced
by the actual parameters.
In forthprog({m4}) the placeholders are forthsamp({${}1}) ... forthsamp({${}9}).
Parameters can be passed, and any (even multiline)
text can be given as a parameter, provided it is quoted.
We will use forthsamp({_lbracket_}) and forthsamp({_rbracket_}) (braces) througout.
This is convenient, because they are 
not used in a Basic Forth system
and  they are 
special anyway (e.g. for TeX).
The use of quotation is very critical at times, 
and the find points are not covered in the following.
@subsection Customisation
Simple customisation can be done by forthprog({m4}) as follows:

 forthsamp({define(_lbracket_version_rbracket_,2.149)})

Within the text treated the version number is substituted.
@subsection Selection
Selection, often one of alternatives, is in general done as follows

forthsamp({_BITS16_(32)_BITS32_(64)_BITS64_(128)}) ,

which gives, of course, the size of a double number.

This is accomplished by 

forthsamp({{define(_lbracket__BITSxx_  _rbracket_,_lbracket_$1  _rbracket_)}})

for the actual bitsize and

forthsamp({define(_lbracket__BITSxx_  _rbracket_,)}) 

for others.

Selections can be nested within other forthprog({m4}) macro construct. 
As in 
forthexample(
{{_VERBOSE_}_lbracket_({_BITS64_}(_lbracket_The possibility to cycle through all (64-bit) 
numbers by {forthsamp}(_lbracket_0 0 DO ... LOOP_rbracket_) is very useful indeed._rbracket_)_rbracket_)})
Here you see at work, apart from forthmacro({{_BITS64_}}) , the macro forthmacro({{_VERBOSE_}}) that allows (if turned on)
verbosity that can help understanding but is not always appreciated.
You alse see forthmacro({{forthsamp}}) that is in fact
a markup to indicate we have a piece of Forth code there.

Selections can be used to throw out a block of 
word definitions and their documentation as a whole.
For example words accessing I/O ports are not available in a Linux Forth, 
as they would only lead to privilege violations.

The braces are essential here. 
Without it the introduction of a comma somewhere in the text
results in forthprog({m4}) interpreting the remainder as a second parameter,
which it wil ignore.
   
@subsection A postponed markup language.
Just say forthsamp({{forthcode(_lbracket_+LOOP _rbracket_)}}) to indicate that you want 
formatting as for ``code'' words. 
Later you can decide to use 
forthbreak
 forthsamp({{define}(_lbracket_forthcode _rbracket_,_lbracket__comat_code_lbracket_${}1_rbracket__rbracket_)}) 
forthbreak
for forthsamp({texinfo}) or  
forthbreak
forthsamp({{define}(_lbracket_forthcode _rbracket_,_lbracket_<B>$1</B> _rbracket_)}) 
forthbreak
for forthsamp({html}) 
.
@subsection Defining structures 
Some macro calls must be considered to define a structure, in particular
 forthsamp({worddoc}) .
Suppose we have a list of structures, meaning that the first person is
a child of the second and third person:

parents({Alice},{Mary},{John})

parents({Fred},{Mary},{Henry})

parents({Aayilah},{Sjantil},{Bodaji})

...

With 
 forthsamp({define({parents},}) {$2}) we get a list of (you guessed) the mothers.

The usage of forthmacro({{divert()}}) can best be explained with an example in this context.

forthexample(
{{define}(_lbracket_parents_rbracket_,
_lbracket_{divert(3)dnl}
${}2
{divert(6)dnl}
${}3
_rbracket_)})

will give out the mothers on channel 3 and fathers on channel 6.
The output will be concatenated, 
but all mothers and all fathers stay together.
For forthsamp({dnl}) see the forthprog({m4}) man-page.

@subsection Defining lists
By using an extra pair of braces you can have a list in forthprog({m4}) .
So forthsamp({_lbracket__lbracket_A_rbracket_,_lbracket_B_rbracket_,_lbracket_C_rbracket_,_lbracket_D_rbracket__rbracket_}) is 
a single parameter to a macro and can 
be passed to other macro's as a whole. 
The outer braces are removed and 
without special measures (reinstalling extra braces again)
the macro called forthemph({sees})
the comma's and concludes there are four parameters.
This is put to good use in the ``See also'' and ``Test'' 
fields of the forthsamp({worddoc}) structure. 
These fields may have zero or more parts.

The ``Test'' field contain the tests in the odd fields, and the 
expected outcome in the following even fields.

@subsection Impress the crowd
By using macro's to define other macro's, then pass the result through
forthprog({m4}) another time, severe stress can be laid upon the intelligence
of the everyday person. 
The very inconvenient way nodes must be linked in texinfo even forced 
me to define part of the macro in one macro and the remainder in
another. 

@section How forthprog({ssort}) is used
The sorting tool forthprog({ssort}) can order multiple field records, with 
different sorting criteria for each field.
The fields can be defined by regular expressions, such that
the forthsamp({worddoc}) structures can be sorted by name, or by wordset
then by name, or in about any way you want.
Because such a tool didn't exist, I had to write it.

@subsection Analysing forthsamp({worddoc})
 forthprog({ssort}) captures the structure of a forthsamp({worddoc}) as follows:

 forthsamp({^worddoc(_lbracket__comat__rbracket_,_lbracket__comat__rbracket_.*\n$worddoc})  

The part between forthsamp({^}) and forthsamp({$}) matches the record. 
The part after the last forthsamp({$})  
is for synchronisation, to make sure the record doesn't end early.
This would result in an error ``not according to structure'': the next 
line doesn't start with ``worddoc'' and so it just doesn't match the record 
description. 
The forthsamp({$}) is merely a separation, (newlines are indicated by forthsamp({\n}) ).
The forthsamp({.*}) matches anything, including new lines. 
But it isn't greedy as in ordinary regular expressions, 
because not being stopped by forthsamp({\n}) ,
it would match the whole file.
Here it tries to match as little as possible.
 forthsamp(_comat__rbracket_) is shorthand for forthsamp([^_rbracket_]*_rbracket_$) 
so a ``sequence of anything except 
right braces followed by a right brace''.
It also contains the forthsamp({$}) to
mark the end of a field. 
@subsection Sorting fields
Once we know what the fields are,
 forthsamp({-M 1S2S }) sorts on the first field
and within that field on the second. We just use the ordinary ASCII collating
sort, indicated by forthsamp({S}) .


@chapter off we go
@section Introduction

What you find here is a Forth for the Intel 86. 
Not much more can be said for such a highly configurable system.
But in this section we will try to summarize the common characteristics.

It borrows some philosophy from the old figforth.
It is in fact based on it, and its documentation in first draft
copied from it.
The Forths are build from 
an assembler source, and it is (in general) an
indirect threaded Forth. 
The motivation for having this type of Forth available follows from its
characteristics. 
An assembler source has distinct advantages for getting started from
nothing. 
An engineer might balk at the description of how to use a meta
compiler,
but feels at ease with a (much larger) assembler manual.
Although speed is currently in fashion, using subroutine threaded Forth's
with optimisers, indirect threading is the preferred choice for some
applications. 
Furthermore the current trend of subroutine threaded Forth's may very
well be unsuitable for 64-bits processors like the Alpha.
I did this work, because I needed it for my thesis on computer intelligence.

@subsection 32 bits
It is unusual for a figforth to be 32 bit.
It turned out that the addition of forthcode({CELL+}) goes a long way toward allowing
utilities like a decompiler to be 16/32 bit clean. In the FIG documentation
about the user variables and forthcode({+ORIGIN}) you may read cells where appropriate
and the documentation applies, as well as it ever did. 
But I hope this documentation is better.

@subsection System requirements

This generic version -if suitably built- runs on industry standard hardware
("PC's") : standalone, under Linux and under MSDOS/MSWINDOWS. 
To build, you need a version of forthprog({nasm}) , forthprog({TASM.EXE}) or forthprog({MASM.EXE}) on your system. I
recomment forthprog({nasm}) , it is an open source assembler and available on different
platforms, at least MSDOS and Unix. It solves a lot of the design errors I
find in the Intel ways of forthprog({MASM.EXE}) . It generates a binary without a linker. 
On the opposite side, e.g. Borland's forthprog({TASM.EXE}) you can buy nowaday's only as part
of a giant C++ package. 
If you want to use the generic possibilities you will need a Unix system
with all of its tools. I use GNU-Linux (RedHat) and do the makes and version
control on that. If you want your bootable floppies made from linux to be
MSDOS-compatible you need mtools. 

@subsection Assembler sources

The following two assembly sources generated are supplied as a service.
These are in fact just examples. You can generate different ones (see next
section.) 
The file forthfile({alone.asm}) can be assembled using forthprog({nasm}) . It includes a boot
sector such that it can boot from a standard floppy on a industry standard
Intel PC. If you have the mtools set (most Linux'es have it) the Makefile
shows you how to make the floppy. On MSDOS you can use forthprog({DEBUG.EXE}) . 
If you run on Linux with
 forthsamp({mtools}) , forthsamp({make boot}) will do it. 
The resulting floppy will even be recognized by
MSDOS, such that you can copy block sources to it. 
 forthsamp({make moreboot})
will do this from Linux, then you will have forthfile({BLOCKS.BLK})
available.
forthsamp({make allboot})
will do it all, but it needs a working forth
on Linux for doing some calculations.
Otherwise on MSDOS (I recommended version 3.3, the most stable MSDOS ever)
adapt the example forthfile({genboot.asm}) . 
The file forthfile({msdos.msm}) can be assembled 
using forthprog({TASM.EXE}) and forthprog({MASM.EXE}). 
The resulting Forth
executable can be run off hard disk and respects the file system on it.
It uses the file forthfile({BLOCKS.BLK}) .

@subsection A generic Forth
As was mentionned before, ciforth has one single source file: the generic I86 figForth.
All advantages of assembler source would be gone, if an engineer were
confronted with conditional compilation and lots of code for other systems
he doesn't want to learn or assemblers he doesn't want to use.
So we proceed in two steps. First a clean assembler source is generated from
the generic Forth using configuration files. Then the assembler source is
processed in one of a number of ways, each way familiar to one brand of
engineers. 

You can customize at a number of levels.
forthenumerate
forthitem
Configuration files have extension forthsamp({.cfg}) , these are files with forthprog({m4})
commands. They are intended to use at the highest and easiest level of
configuration and contain their own simple usage instructions. 
forthitem
forthprog({m4}) files have extension forthvar({.m4}), and control one aspect of genericity, such
as the header layout or the protection mode. You definitely need to know forthprog({m4})
to use these.
forthitem
Assembler files can be customised in the traditional way by adopting
constants, or commenting in source lines. The assembler files are distinct
from the one generic source. No forthprog({m4}), you need only cope with the directives
of your assembler, and will not see any code applicable to other operating
systems or I/O systems. (It is not commented out, it is just not there.) 
forthitem
You can adapt the generic source. This is difficult, but gratifying.
If you manage to ISO-fy it, the result is a lot of ISO systems, not just one.
forthendenumerate

@subsection Level 1 customization.

This is assuming you run on Unix.

By specifying what you want in a configuration file you can generate a host
of assembler listings. This is as simple as replacing ``_yes'' with ``_no'' in
configuration files.
See the examples forthfile({msdos.cfg}) and forthfile({alone.cfg}) and the Makefile. 
You can find out what the options are by inspecting forthfile({prelude.m4}) . 

With respect to the assembler you can choose between forthprog({nasm}) and forthprog({MASM.EXE}) , with
file extension forthfile({.asm}) and forthfile({.msm}) respectively. 
The forthvar({.msm}) are acceptable by
TASM.EXE too. You can generate an equivalent forthfile({.s}) file, but this is 
experimental and doesn't lead to a working forth.

With respect to the I/O (words like forthcodeni({EXPECT}) forthcodeni({R/W}) ) you can choose between
three on MSDOS.
You can use dos forthmacro({_CLASSIC_}) in the classic way as with the original. This
means that the floppy is used directly without regard for directory
structures. This uses calls that are declared obsolete.
You can use dos in a modern way. forthmacro({_MODERN_}). This allocates block in the
file with name forthfile({BLOCKS.BLK}) . This name is available in the string forthcodeni({BLOCK-FILE}) 
for you to change, also at run time. No (as of 2000 ) obsolete MSDOS calls
are used (Checked against MS-DOS programmers reference "covers through
version 6" ISBN 1-55615-546-8) 
You can use the BIOS forthmacro({_USEBIOS_}) No MSDOS interrupts are required. 

With repect to I/O on linux you can choose between c-based and native.
The c-based version may be portable to other I86 unices. The native version
of course not. All linux versions have their blocks in a file. (Accessing
a floppy in the classic way is perfectly possible -- and implementing it would
be a perfectly pointless exercise.)

With respect to the hosting you can choose between forthmacro({{_HOSTED_}}) ( forthmacro({{_HOSTED_LINUX_}}) or
 forthmacro({{_HOSTED_MSDOS_})}) and forthmacro({{_BOOTED_}}) . ( forthmacro({{_BOOTDF_}}) or forthmacro({{_BOOTHD_}}) ). 
A hosted version relies on MSDOS or Linux to get the program started. 
(It may or may not use MSDOS for I/O, once started.). 
A forthmacro({{_BOOTED_}}) version contains a boot sector, such that
you you can make a standalone version that boots from floppy or hard disk. 
A forthmacro({{_BOOTED_}}) version may very well be startable from plain DOS and its files 
visible from DOS.

Of course a forthmacro({{BOOTED_}}) version that tries to use MSDOS I/O (or Linux) crashes
immediately, so not all versions are useful. 

You have a choice between 16 or 32 protected mode and real mode.
Of course on Linux real mode is not an option, (but you could run the
MSDOS emulator). Protected mode Forths on MSDOS cannot be started from
virtual real mode, e.g. they will not run in a "DOS box" in Windows.

If you manage to specify conflicting options the preprocessor (forthprog({m4})) breaks
off and you can find the exit code in forthfile({postlude.m4}) . Than you can reason back
why this is a conflict. For example error 1000 indicates floppy and hard
disk i/o at the same time. 
From forthfile({postlude.m4}) you see that forthmacro({{_RWFD_}}) and forthmacro({{_RWHD_}}) are
on at the same time. forthmacro({{_RWHD_}}) is turned on because you wanted to boot from hard
disk or you specified it yourself in the first place. Etc. 

forthfile({postlude.m4}) does you another favor. It derives logical consequences, such
as once you decide for a forthmacro({{_REAL_}}) mode Forth, it must be forthmacro({{_BITS16_}}) 
and you need not specify 
that_VERBOSE_({ (And yes, we could add a real mode 32 bits Forth, any volunteers?)}).
In particular forthmacro({{_LINUX_N_}}) or forthmacro({{_LINUX_C_}}) define a whole configuration.

@subsection Level 2 customization.
You are on your own here.

@subsection Level 3 customization.

The usual customisation in assembler files is possible. 
If you use other than 3" floppy disks you have to specify the disk
parameters. Parameters for a 5" HD floppy are present and can be commented
in. 
If you do not need a DOS-compatible floppy, you can put the image
immediately after the boot sector. A bootable hard disk version always works
like that. 
You can change the default name of the forthcodeni({BLOCK-FILE}) at run time.
If you want to change the header layout, you will find that the way headers
are done via MACRO's make it more pleasant to use the generic listing. 
If you may want you can use this as a starting point for generating a whole
other Forth (like me).   
If you want to boot into your 20 Gbyte disk (like me), you probably have a
version 3.0 super modern LBA BIOS. There is no file system, just 20,000,000
blocks (and yes a 16 bit system would be inconvenient). If you want to use
an older system you must experiment by using the forthcodeni({BIOS}) word. 
(You need not resort to assembler for experimenting.) 
Then you can adapt your assembler listing.
There is a description in the history section about bringing up an assembler
system.

@subsection Level 4 customization.
Contact me if you want to contribute to the wider usability of this package.

@subsection Programs
In the file forthfile({BLOCKS.BLK}) is available a screen editor, assembler, decompiler
and tools like DUMP. Beware! Some of the tools handle hards disks. There are
example programs and benchmarks. Everything under screen 100 you will find
more or less working, but maybe not on your system.
Everything loaded from 8 is used by me on a regular basis and is 16/32 bits
clean. Beware! The full screen editor doesnot work under Linux (protection).
The system doesn't load it under Linux with forthsamp({8 LOAD}) .
The program forthprog({wc}) is an example of how to use forthprog({lina}) as a scripting language.

@subsection The joy of genericity

I added generic words forthcodeni({BIOS}) , forthcodeni({BDOS}) and forthcodeni({LINOS}) . 
These allow to have high level
words to handle about all ``BIOS'' and interrupt 21 calls. 
Linux is better.
forthcodeni({LINOS}) handles all Linux system calls. 

Genericity is acomplished by the Unix tools forthprog({m4}) . I use GNU forthprog({m4}). This is a weird
tool but powerful. Forthers probably like it.
Some implementation details are hidden in the file forthfile({header.m4}) . In particular
the way headers are built. I maybe 
want to get rid of the forthcodeni({WIDTH}) and forthcodeni({TRAVERSE})
peculiarities and you may want to have the headers alligned at word bounds.
This is easily done by changes to forthfile({header.m4}) .
This kind of possibilities were in fact the motivation for this undertaking. 

@subsection Web sites.
A newer or improved version may be gotten from
http://home.hccnet.nl/a.w.m.van.der.horst
Nasm is found at 

The FIG source this is based on is at 

MASM.EXE is available 

The original fig documentation is at 
http://home.hccnet.nl/a.w.m.van.der.horst/figforth.html
This include the pictures.

@subsection Linux application notes figforth version
The linux forth called figforth has its i/o based on c. This may seem more
portable but it isn't. Where c is very portable on Linux, the way assembler
is linked with forth is not documented (as far as I can tell, in my version.
Linux improves overnight, so this may no longer be true.) 
The "break key" is implemented as the "any key". This key is lost, as is
perfectly allowed in the fig model. The forthcodeni({EXPECT}) has not the " return if
maximum reached property", so it is not strictly conforming. This can be
done at the expense of handling each character separately. (Use forthcodeni({KEY}) to
implement forthcodeni({EXPECT}) as in the CLASSIC I/O model). This results in loosing
interruptability. Moreover Linux knows better what the forthcodeni({RUBOUT}) key should be,
although for your convenenience it is already placed in a user variable and
can be easily changed. 
The c-approach allows signals to be handled in a familiar way.
By using quit, a loop can be interrupted. So ^\ results in a warm start.
A segmentation fault also results in a warm start. ^C immediately leaves.
^S/^Q can be used to hold up output and are not interpreted as a break
in e.g. VLIST.

@subsection Linux application notes lina version
The lina version is based on a single assembler source, built without
trickery and binary-portable accross Linux Intel (all systems were it has
been tried work : 1.2.13 .. 2.0.13). No run time c-libraries, no compile time
c-libraries, no libraries at all. It is built directly on the solid rock
of the system calls by ignoring a taboo c-programmers suffer from.
forthexample({
    nasm -felf lina.asm 
    ld lina.o -s -o lina
    strip lina
})
It is less than 12 K and the dictionary space is set at 64 Mbyte. 

Blocks are allocated in a file called forthfile({BLOCKS.BLK}) This name can be changed in
listing and also during run time. 
 forthfile({BLOCKS.BLK}) can be changed into an editable file and back by
forthsamp({cat BLOCKS.BLK | fromblocks > blocks.frt
cat blocks.frt | toblocks > BLOCKS.BLK})

The user variable forthsamp({EM}) still is the end of the memory. 
The forthsamp({M4_EM}) in the configuration files is such that it designates the relative
size, from the relocatable start. 
Consequently it is not the same as the user variable. 
(The relocatable start is some 128 Mbyte into the memory space.).
@subsection Bugs
See the separate test report for an indication of which and how far 
versions have been tested.
forthenumerate
forthitem
Linux version.
Once you have used a SIGQUIT to interrupt a loop, forthcodeni({BYE}) no longer works.
You can exit the program by "0 0 0 1 LINOS", which is exit(0) in
c-parlance or by pressing ^C, or by killing it from some other terminal,
or by just closing the window. 
You will not encounter this bug in version 2.148,
because that version crashes immediately, 
due to build problems.
forthitem
forthcodeni({OUT}) may not be observed in all I/O models. Needs examination.
forthitem
   More a misfeature. The negative error numbers of Linux system calls
   can be handled by negative offset's from screen 4. Now an offset
   of 64 is added. (The messages have not been filled in anyway.).
forthitem
Since I installed a new Red Hat (6.2) figforth crashes. 
forthendenumerate

dnl@node Glossary Index,,,Top
@unnumbered Program Index
This index lists programs words.
@printindex pg
dnl@node Forth Word Index,,,Top
@unnumbered Forth Word Index
This index lists forth words.
@printindex fn
@node Concept Index,,,Top
@unnumbered Concept Index
This index lists concepts.
dnl The first reference is where the concept is explained.
@printindex cp
@summarycontents
@contents
@bye