VolksForth/msdos/readme.org
2020-07-18 08:44:07 +02:00

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#+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.