VolksForth/8086/msdos/readme.org

#+TITLE: VolksForth MS-DOS README
#+AUTHOR: Carsten Strotmann, Philip Zembrod
#+DATE: <2022-03-13 Sun>

* Refactoring in progress

MSDOS VolksForth is currently in transition towards make based
and stream file (.fth) based builds.

* Documentation for make based builds

The central Makefile is written for GNU make on Linux and uses
the DOS emulator dosbox to run VolksForth and Metacompiler
binaries for building new VolksForth binaries and for running
tests. The make rules also use several Linux tools, e.g.
bash, Python, grep or dos2unix.

volks4th.com is the old checked-in full VolksForth binary
with editor etc, manually compiled from block sources as
described in the "Previous .fb-based manual build instructions".
It is intended to remain untouched throughout the transition
period until it can be safely replaced by new .fth-based
kernels with build-in .fth interface.

** Binary make targets

=make v4th.com=
builds the new minimal VolksForth kernel v4th.com
from .fth sources using metafile.com. v4th.com does not have the block
words and the buffer mechanism anymore. The only way to load code from
files is via =include filename.fth=.

=make v4thblk.com=
builds the new minimal VolksForth kernel v4thblk.com
from .fth sources using metafile.com. v4thblk.com contains the block
words and the buffer mechanism and can load and include both .fth
stream sources and .fb block sources.

=make metafile.com=
builds the metacompiler with included .fth file interface.
It is used to build v4th.com, so metafile.com will be built
as part of the make rule for v4th.com. Note: metafile.com
is mostly still built from meta.fb, i.e. from block sources.

=make o4th.com=
builds a new minimal VolksForth kernel from kernel.fb, i.e.
from block sources. This is equivalent to the previous
"How to meta-compile a new kernel" instruction.

=make v4thfile.com=
adds the .fth file interface to the old volks4th binary.

** Test make targets

=make test=
runs all current tests.

=make test-std.result=
runs v4th.com through the standard set of unit tests, without the block
tests, of course

=make test-blk.result=
runs v4thblk.com through full set of unit tests, including the block
tests.

=make test-volks4th-min.result=
runs the same initial minimal set of unit tests on v4thfile.com
which is the old volks4th.com binary with added .fth file interface.

* Previous .fb-based manual build instructions

** 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).

  The downside of this change is that the VolksForth full screen
  editor does not work anymore, as the BIOS interface does not support
  special keys like cursor or function keys. As a replacement, the
  Retro-Forth Editor =rfe.fb= or some other Forth Editor can be used.