[Coco] [CoCo] More Progress with Color Forth

[Jim OKeefe]

Hello Stephen, Nice work again. I'm very impressed with your progress and a
little jealous ;) at how quickly you got things running.  I was wondering
how to get those screens loaded. I have been using the core and adding disk
commands myself. I can load screens from disk and am close to a complete
block-buffer system. I wrote a simple line editor but the complete editor
would be real nice. Next I would like to be able to use a 64 or 80 column
display for the coco3. I changed the address range  but I should be able to
offset the editor screens into my code if  you could send me the dsk.

Regards Jim

On Sat, Jan 3, 2015 at 12:34 PM, Stephen Pereira <spereira1952 at comcast.net>
wrote:

> I have continued my work on Color Forth, and I now have additional files
> working.
>
> The original source code I did first is the Color Forth nucleus.  When you
> assemble it and LOADM it, you will find that you have the ability to use
> the Forth language from the command line, but it does not yet have the
> ability to edit screens, because the code for the editor has not yet been
> entered.  The Color Forth manual has additional source code as Color Forth
> screens in addition to the source code of the Color Forth nucleus.
>
> I created a .DSK file which is a copy of all that I have at present.  It
> contains several source and executable files:
>
> -  CCFORTH.ASM  &  CCFORTH.BIN
> -  CCFTMPLT.ASM  & CCFTMPLT.BIN
> -  CCFEDITR.ASM & CCFEDITR.BIN
> -  CCF-MISC.ASM  & CCF-MISC.BIN
>
> All of these files were assembled using EDTASM6309 from Robert Gault.
>
> If you wish to load Color Forth and play with it in immediate mode from
> the command line, then:
> LOADM”CCFORTH” EXEC
>
> If you want to try out the editor and edit code into your own screens,
> then:
> LOADM”CCFEDITR”
> LOADM”CCFORTH”
> EXEC
>
> Once you are in Color Forth, you must then compile the screens you
> previously loaded into Color Forth.
> The easiest command to do this is:
>
> 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 LOAD LOAD LOAD LOAD LOAD LOAD LOAD
>
> After that, the editor will be available.
>
> To get into the editor and be working in screen 1, just type:
>
> 1 EDIT
>
> To exit the editor, type:
>
> QUIT
>
> These commands and the other editor commands are described in the Color
> Forth manual.
>
> The file CCFTMPLT is a file containing a set of 8 empty screens that one
> can use for creating their own screens offline.  Use caution - Color Forth
> can hold 8 screens, each containing 32 lines of 32 characters.  Each of the
> lines in the screens in the CCFTMPLT.ASM file has 32 spaces in it.  When
> you type in your own code, you must REPLACE the spaces in the line you are
> entering, so the lines remain 32 characters long.
>
> The file CCF-MISC contains a bunch of other miscellaneous code that was in
> the Color Forth cartridge, but has to be entered separately (like the
> editor) as it stands today.  It does not contain the editor, so you can
> only use immediate mode from the command line but you have an expanded
> vocabulary:
> LOADM”CCF-MISC”
> LOADM”CCFORTH”
> EXEC
>
> Once you are in Color Forth, you must then compile the screens you
> previously loaded into Color Forth.
> The easiest command to do this is:
>
> 4 3 2 1 LOAD LOAD LOAD LOAD
>
> At present, the cassette I/O is not installed for saving and loading.
> Hence I have constructed this method of building screens as assembly
> language files so they can be loaded into place prior to loading Color
> Forth.
>
> Since I am using the bit banger port for Drivewire, I have not attempted
> to do anything with the printer, either.
>
> This is still very much a work in progress.  Next, I am intending to
> experiment with loading screens and loading Color Forth, then compiling the
> screens into Color Forth and using SAVEM to save a new copy of Color Forth
> with the screens compiled in.  This will allow me to build up the Color
> Forth dictionary a bit at a time and (hopefully) end up with all the
> functionality that was originally in the Color Forth cartridge all in one
> binary file.
>
> Please contact me via e-mail if you are interested in a copy of the .DSK
> file.
>
> smp
> --
> Stephen M. Pereira
> Bedford, NH  03110
> KB1SXE
>
>
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