VolksForth/8086/msdos/readme.org

#+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).

  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.