#+TITLE: VolksForth MS-DOS README
#+AUTHOR: Carsten Strotmann
#+DATE: <2020-06-19 Fri>

* How to meta-compile a new kernel

  After making changes the the Forth kernel source in =kernel.fb=,
  restart =volksforth.com= to have a clean system and compile a new
  "minimal" kernel with =include kernel.fb=. This will create a new
  =FORTH.COM= executable.

* creating a minimal system with a simple editor

  Execute =forth.com include minimal.sys= to generate the file
  =minimal.com= which contains a minimal VolksForth system with the
  Retro-Forth editor
  https://fossil.forth-ev.de/volksforth/wiki?name=Atari8bit-retrofortheditor

  This system can be used to edit the file =volksforth.sys= or other
  Forth source block files needed to create a full VolksForth system.

* creating a full VolksForth system from the minimal kernel

  Execute =forth.com include volks4th.sys= to create a new fully
  equipped VolksForth executable =volks4th.com=.
* creating a version of VolksForth that works with emu2

  EMU2 is a nice PC Emulator that can run MS-DOS console applications
  as Linux/MacOS/Windows console applications. EMU2 can be found at
  https://github.com/dmsc/emu2

  The standard Keyboard-Interface of VolksForth (BDOS) does not work
  with EMU2, however it is possible to switch to the simpler BIOS
  keyboard interface. For that, comment out the blocks #114 and #115
  by placing =\\= at the beginning of the first row of these blocks
  and comment in block #116 by changing the =\\= in the first row to
  =\=. (=\= is "skip to end of line" comment, while =\\= is the "skip
  to end of current block" commend)