Supernotes

[GDMike]

7 minutes ago, Lee Stewart said:

 

TI Forth does, indeed, have FILL (fills RAM). The same goes for fbForth. TurboForth’s V! stores only one byte and that to VRAM, not RAM.

 

...lee

Hmm. Maybe I need to load the library somehow.  I'll have to find the manual again.

Thx lee

[GDMike]

33 minutes ago, Lee Stewart said:

 

TI Forth does, indeed, have FILL (fills RAM). The same goes for fbForth. TurboForth’s V! stores only one byte and that to VRAM, not RAM.

 

...lee

I definitely need to read this!!

https://atariage.com/forums/topic/185708-ti-forth-instruction-manual-in-pdf-format-edited-expanded/

[GDMike]

I think I see my issue with ti forth, when I loaded it, I just received the TI FORTH message and cursor.

I didn't get this, below:

I'll look at making a new disk I suppose

"The TI Forth welcome screen will display a list of load options (or elective blocks). Each option
loads all routines necessary to perform a particular group of tasks:
Load Option Loads Forth Words Necessary to: Chapter
-SYNONYMS Perform VDP reads and writes. Random number generators and
the disk formatting routine are also loaded.
5
-EDITOR Run the regular, 40-column TI Forth editor. 3
-COPY Copy Forth screens1
 and Forth disks. String store routines are also
loaded.
5
-DUMP Execute DUMP and VLIST. 5
-TRACE Trace the execution of Forth words. 5
-FLOAT Use floating-point arithmetic. 7
-VDPMODES Change display screen to any of the 6 available VDP modes. 6
-TEXT Change display screen to Text mode. 6
-GRAPH1 Change display screen to Graphics mode

 

[+Lee Stewart]

24 minutes ago, GDMike said:

I think I see my issue with ti forth, when I loaded it, I just received the TI FORTH message and cursor.

 

FILL is part of the kernel so you do not need the welcome screen to load to be able to use that particular word, though it is curious that it didn’t load.

 

...lee 

[+Lee Stewart]

10 hours ago, Lee Stewart said:

 

TI Forth does, indeed, have FILL (fills RAM). The same goes for fbForth. TurboForth’s V! stores only one byte and that to VRAM, not RAM.

 

I should add that TurboForth’s V! and V@ are identical to TI Forth’s and fbForth’s VSBW and VSBR , respectively. And, if you really want to fill VRAM with a given byte value in TI Forth (or fbForth), there is VFILL to do your bidding. In TI Forth, all of the above words do require the -SYNOMYMS screen to be loaded. They are in fbForth 2.0’s kernel (cartridge).

 

...lee

[GDMike]

I think my floppy wasn't formatted correct. Because when I reformatted as SS/SD and then copied the three files over it booted right.

 

[GDMike]

I have a little time on my hands rt now since my computer is down waiting on a raspberry pi Replacement. I don't know what happened to the raspberry pi it was sitting on my table all by its lonesome and now it just won't boot anyway the company's is going to replace it, I just bought it in July. But while I'm waiting on the pi, I'll dab into ti forth and my supercart.

I also found the ti Forth manual.

Edited October 6, 2020 by GDMike

[+Lee Stewart]

3 minutes ago, GDMike said:

I think my floppy wasn't formatted correct. Because when I reformatted as SS/SD and then copied the three files over it booted right.

 

I am surprised that it worked. The TI Forth program disk has a special format, which is not conducive to simple file copying. Appendices K and L of the manual discuss this and show how to manage it for different disk sizes.

 

...lee

[GDMike]

1 hour ago, Lee Stewart said:

the manual discuss this

I'm in the manual. Its coming back to me.. whohooo

 

Edited October 6, 2020 by GDMike

[+TheBF]

9 hours ago, GDMike said:

I'm in the manual. Its coming back to me.. whohooo

 

Translation: "Back to me coming it is"

[GDMike]

"I am surprised that it worked".

i made three floppies all that same way.

formatted my disk 1 as SS/SD then

copied three files from my gotek,DSK2 to my DSK1 Forth disk.

then blew away the menu, I think it's on screen 2 or 3 to just autoload -graph,-editor,

-synonyms.

but I'm really more interested in just making a screens "work" disk that is basically empty that I can swap out the forth disk with after it loads up the "essentials".

but, BF, your right, it's pretty easy to make my Supercart format program in FORTH Lol

 

 

Edited October 6, 2020 by GDMike

[+Lee Stewart]

26 minutes ago, GDMike said:

then blew away the menu, I think it's on screen 2 or 3 to just autoload -graph,-editor, -synonyms.

 

The welcome (autoload) screen/block is #3.

 

32 minutes ago, GDMike said:

but I'm really more interested in just making a screens "work" disk that is basically empty that I can swap out the forth disk with after it loads up the "essentials".

 

Use DISK-HEAD after LOADing block 40 ( -COPY ) or see Appendix L.2 “Larger Work Disk”.

 

...lee

[GDMike]

1 hour ago, Lee Stewart said:

 

The welcome (autoload) screen/block is #3.

 

 

Use DISK-HEAD after LOADing block 40 ( -COPY ) or see Appendix L.2 “Larger Work Disk”.

 

...lee

Thx lee, I started reading through the manual last night- and being a long day yesterday, I'll have to continue today. Excited

Edited October 6, 2020 by GDMike

[GDMike]

I found this information too.

https://www.ninerpedia.org/wiki/TI_Forth

[+TheBF]

39 minutes ago, GDMike said:

I found this information too.

https://www.ninerpedia.org/wiki/TI_Forth

Lot's of good reading there.

 

This is cute.

 

"HOW do you return to the title screen, as QUIT does not work?"  

 

QUIT worked perfectly.

QUIT is the name of the Forth Interpreter loop.  In other words if you QUIT in Forth, it means stop your current Forth application and go back to the Forth command line... not the TI main screen.  

 

[+TheBF]

This example is misleading:

This is not a normal loop. This is TEST calling TEST , calling TEST , calling TEST forever. 

 

It is recursive.  So the return stack gets bigger with every key pressed and never comes back.

Eventually it will crash the system when return stack collides with something else that is important.

 

: TEST KEY EMIT MYSELF ;

 

The proper way to do this is with an endless loop.

: TEST   BEGIN    KEY EMIT    AGAIN ; 

 

[+TheBF]

And since I am reading it I might as well finish the job.

 

This example is very bad form and is also recursive where it should not be.

: TEST KEY ?TERMINAL IF ABORT ELSE EMIT MYSELF ENDIF ;

 

I would be better Forth style to create a new word like ?BREAK.  Then you can use it anywhere you need it.

(the leading '?" is a notation convention to indicate that this word might cause an ABORT which goes back to the Forth command line)

: ?BREAK    ?TERMINAL IF  CR ." *BREAK*"  ABORT ENDIF ;
: TEST    BEGIN    ?BREAK  KEY EMIT  AGAIN ; 

 

[GDMike]

3 hours ago, TheBF said:

Lot's of good reading there.

 

This is cute.

 

"HOW do you return to the title screen, as QUIT does not work?"  

 

QUIT worked perfectly.

QUIT is the name of the Forth Interpreter loop.  In other words if you QUIT in Forth, it means stop your current Forth application and go back to the Forth command line... not the TI main screen.  

 

Word, "MON" resets to title screen

MON
        Exit to the system monitor, leaving a re-entry to Forth, if
        possible.

 

Edited October 6, 2020 by GDMike

[GDMike]

I guess I need to load what I'll use first 

[GDMike]

The raw screen loads of ti forth video takes approx 2 mins to run.

But after a bsave it's 20 something seconds. Minus the text indicating what is loading.

 

I don't understand "BSAVE" myself, I do understand the concept and why it loads fast.

I've got to create "FREE" or find out where it loads from to see memory usages.

 

[+TheBF]

Ya TI-Forth is not the speediest compiler around.

 

I don't understand what you are looking for exactly, but once Forth is in control of the computer code is compiled to the end of the dictionary. The address is called HERE.

As in, you asked where the dictionary ends. It's right HERE.  

 

If you type:  HEX HERE U.     you will see that address where the next code will compile to.

[GDMike]

Ahh. Yes. I found it.

-----

HERE RESIDENT
( --- addr )
Leave the address of the next available dictionary location.

------

I had read somewhere, and confused my word. But I saw "FREE" somewhere. Maybe a word was created somewhere that got my imagination..lol

Yes, I stand corrected.  HERE not FREE.

 

As, nothing is FREE. Nothing.

 I need to get a good printout of the

TI-FORTH book. (Waiting on ink because nothing is free).

pulling Stuff off my phone all the time is not so easy, as I really need to see it in its full glory. Lol

 

Edited October 7, 2020 by GDMike

[+Lee Stewart]

44 minutes ago, GDMike said:

I don't understand "BSAVE" myself, I do understand the concept and why it loads fast.

I've got to create "FREE" or find out where it loads from to see memory usages.

 

BSAVE saves the state of the Forth system, along with a memory image of the dictionary (ranging from the address you specify [typically, pfa of TASK ] to HERE ) to disk. Storage starts with the block you specify and continues (1000 bytes/block—likely, with fewer bytes in the last block) until the complete memory image has been stored. BSAVE ends by pushing to the stack the next available block number. BLOAD reverses this process, overwriting anything you may have added to the dictionary after the BSAVEd address (probably, TASK ).

 

If you want to remove what was BLOADed, simply FORGET the first word after TASK (or other load address, if not TASK ) in the dictionary. Of course, this will remove anything you may have added to the dictionary after your BLOAD !

 

...lee

[GDMike]

Oh.

"Storage starts with the block you specify and continues (1000 bytes/block—likely, with fewer bytes in the last block) until the complete memory image has been stored".

 

 As I told BSAVE, to write Block/SCR 51 in my case. And So it will write the"image" there and beyond, depending on how much data to write. GOT IT

 

SO SO WHAT I DID, is that I set up the forth boot disc the way I wanted it to with the dictionary that I created, and then I made a completely separate scr disk with the format- disk and at this point I start writing my new words I'm just worried about how much RAM I'm going to have so I've got to figure out how to use HERE. But it doesn't look difficult to create FREE.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[GDMike]

Oh now what? Did I just corner myself in?

 

I made a seperate disk using FORTHs format-disk command AND I've been using it nicely but now I'm not able to read it with any disk manager so I cant make a backup copy. It works in forth but I'd like to back it up. 

Dsk0 is a  floppy drive

DSK1 is a gotek (ti dsk controller)

Oh man...

 

Edited October 7, 2020 by GDMike