TI FORTH

[+Lee Stewart]

Wow! It's been a really long time since I've done much of any significance with the TI99-4A! I have nearly 80 cartridges, many of which are used by my grandkids on a regular basis when they come over. The productivity software/cartridges (TI BASIC, TI Extended BASIC, TI Writer, TI Multiplan, Editor/Assembler, Terminal Emulator II, TI Logo II and TI FORTH) have seen little use except for TI BASIC until very recently. I have often used TI BASIC for simple math problems like figuring trigonometric solutions for various projects around the house because I could fire up the TI quicker than going upstairs to boot up one of the PCs. I might need the hypotenuse of a right triangle to lay out the paint lines on the grass of the volleyball court.

Recently, however, after noticing to my delight an unexpected presence on the Internet of TI99ers, I was inspired to pick up a couple of projects I had long ago allowed to languish for 20 odd years! They both had to do with TI FORTH. One was to clean up and make easier to use with an index and anything else I could use to make it better, the TI FORTH Instruction Manual. The other was to finish a FORTH program I had started that was to solve a problem with a unique Social Security Number (SSN), viz., using the digits 1-9 only once (no 0, of course), construct a SSN with the growing number evenly divisible by the position number of the last digit. For example, 123 needs to be evenly divisible by 3 (it is) and 1234 needs to be divisible by 4 (it is not, but 1236 is), etc.

I have finished the FORTH problem and am well on my way to polishing up the TI FORTH Instruction Manual. If there is any interest, I will post the FORTH solution (I may do it anyway!). When I am finished with the TI FORTH Instruction Manual, I will post it, as well. Also, I am certainly interested in whether anyone else is doing anything with the original TI FORTH on the 99-4A. Later...

 

...lee

[+retroclouds]

Hi Lee! Welcome to our Atariage group.

 

I'm no Forth programmer myself. But if you go through the threads you'll notice quite some forth activity (there's a TurboForth cartridge released just a few weeks ago!).

 

The thing I personally remember from TI Forth was the 64 columns mode. I also remember some kind of breakout game written in TI-Forth.

Nice memories

 

Perhaps Mark and Lucien can chime in. You also might want to checkout the Yahoo TI-99/4A group as there's some Forth talk as well.

 

When ready perhaps we can add your manual to the Development Resources thread. There's no real forth section yet, but I would like to add one

[lucien2]

Perhaps Mark and Lucien can chime in.

 

I don't have TI Forth, but I would be happy to test it, if it can be run on an emulator.

[+Lee Stewart]

Sorry for this late response, but I've been busy with the TI FORTH Instruction Manual, lately.

 

The only emulator I've tried so far is Tursi's Classic99, which I really like. The problem is that it really doesn't support TI FORTH because it won't (yet) do sector writes and TI FORTH relies on sector writes for its block/screen editing. I am actually contemplating rewriting that part of TI FORTH so that it would (1) default to a file for FORTH blocks/screens (much as I think Mark Wills' TurboForth handles them) and (2) be able to convert an original TI FORTH set of screens/blocks to the "new" file method.

 

...lee

[+OLD CS1]

Ignore this post.

[+Lee Stewart]

OK, attached in post #9 below is a description of the unique Social Security Number problem and my FORTH solution to it. I am sure someone out there can come up with a more compact and more efficient solution; but, I had fun with this!

 

...lee

Edited November 15, 2021 by Lee Stewart

[Willsy]

OK, attached is a description of the unique Social Security Number problem and my FORTH solution to it. I am sure someone out there can come up with a more compact and more efficient solution; but, I had fun with this!

 

...lee

 

Interesting! I'll try and do a version for TurboForth when I have the time. What does the word R do?

 

Mark

[+Lee Stewart]

OK, attached is a description of the unique Social Security Number problem and my FORTH solution to it. I am sure someone out there can come up with a more compact and more efficient solution; but, I had fun with this!

 

...lee

 

Interesting! I'll try and do a version for TurboForth when I have the time. What does the word R do?

 

Mark

R copies the top of the return stack to the parameter/data stack, same as your R@ , I believe.

 

...lee

[+Lee Stewart]

I discovered that I had attached an earlier, buggy draft of my TI FORTH solution to the SSN problem PDF I posted above. I have corrected the problem in a new PDF (SSN_2.pdf) in the attached ZIP file. Included in the ZIP file are four DSK formats (SSSD, DSSD, DSDD and CF7+) with the starting screen as screen #9 (zero-based) in each. I checked all four "disks" with the MESS emulator and they work. I also checked one disk with Classic99 and it worked fine. I presume the others will work, as well. Obviously, you have to first load TI FORTH. You must also load TI FORTH screen #33, which is loaded by typing

-SYNONYMS

...lee

FORTH-SSN.zip

[+Lee Stewart]

For the previously posted SSN problem, you can avoid loading TI FORTH screen #33 (loaded by "-SYNONYMS") by changing "CLS" to "16 SYSTEM" (that is how CLS is defined in the system synonyms screen) in the definition of "FIND_SSN" on screen #14 of the DSK image you decide to use (screen #6 of the PDF). I hope this is a little clearer than mud!

 

...lee