VolksForth/msdos

VolksForth MS-DOS README

• How to meta-compile a new kernel
• creating a minimal system with a simple editor
• creating a full VolksForth system from the minimal kernel
• creating a version of VolksForth that works with emu2

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)