Welcome to the JForth PD release 6/03/98 !!!! IMPORTANT !!!! This JForth package is released as freeware. Permission is hereby given for any third party to reproduce, distribute and modify the JForth software code or any derivative works thereof without any compensation or license. The JForth software code is provided on an "as is" basis without any warranty of any kind, including, without limitation, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose and their equivalents under the laws of any jurisdiction, as well as the provision of support of any kind. Technical support from Delta Research for this free product is not available. If, however, you find an error in our release package such as a missing documentation file, or a scrambled archive file, please let us know. ------------------------------------------------------------------ NOTE: JForth PD is distributed in 3 LHA archives named J4TH1OF3.LHA, J4TH2OF3.LHA and J4TH3OF3.LHA. The first 2 are necessary to install a functional JForth development system. The 3rd contains product documentation in RTF format (for use with word processors that understand that format) and is highly recommended. ------------------------------------------------------------------ JForth PD is a complete JForth software development system. It is equivalent to the last release of the commercial JForth Professional 3.1 package, with AmigaDOS 3.1 includes instead of 2.04 and a few bug fixes. In addition, a soft copy of the JForth user manual as well as a much later version of Textra, the user-friendly text editor, is included. This file will explain how to install the JForth PD software development system on your hard drive. (The enclosed documentation mentions running from floppies, but the enclosed WB 3.1 include files are too large for that. Move them to a separate floppy and reassign ji: there to run from floppies). NOTE: Disregard the JForth Pro 3.x installation instructions in the documentation, as well as the Install_JForth installation script in the JTools drawer. (Both are oriented toward installation from floppies.) Use the following instructions to install this package... -------------------------------------------------------------- INSTALLATION OVERVIEW Hopefully you have already expanded the three J4TH#OF3 lha files, because you are looking at this ReadMe. I recommend the lha files be extracted into the same drawer, which can be removed after the installation. You will then create another drawer and extract the 5 archives into it. You will then perform a small edit to your s:user-startup file and finally, reboot your Amiga. The JForth system will be fully functional at that point, ready for you to launch the JForth shell (com:JForth) and compile some test programs. -------------------------------------------------------------- DETAILED INSTALLATION PROCEDURE 1. Create a drawer somewhere on your hard disk. For this example, we'll assume the pathname of this drawer is "Work:JF"... you should, of course, substitute your own drawer's pathname when you see "Work:JF" in this example. 2. Extract each of the 5 .lha files into Work:JF. Each will create a drawer with the same name as the respective archive, sans the .lha extension. When finished, Work:JF should contain the following drawers... JForth Extras JTools Textra120 JFDocs 3. Add the following 2 lines to your s:user-startup script (if you don't have an s:user-startup file, use s:startup-sequence but insert it before the endcli command)... assign JFHD: Work:JF execute JFHD:Extras/HD-ASSIGNS 4. Save the file, wait 10 seconds, then reboot your Amiga. 5. Launch JForth by one of the following methods... From Workbench: double-click on Work:JF/Extras/com/JForth From shell, enter: run com:jforth 6. After JForth presents it's 'ok' prompt, enter: include jd:load_demos 7. When that finishes compiling, enter: demo 8. To exit JForth, enter: BYE ...then press RETURN --------------------------------------------------------------------- HELPFUL INFO TO GET STARTED Free dictionary space... Note: When com:JForth initially starts up, it has a free dictionary space of about 56K. This is enough to compile the JForth demo, but not larger programs. You can make this area as large as your Amiga has memory to support. As an example, lets create a JForth that has 200K free dictionary space... 1. Run the release com:JForth (see step 5 above) and enter: 200 #K ! ( puts 200 in the 'number-K' JForth variable ) save-forth com:J200 ( creates a bigger JForth on disk ) bye ( exits the com:JForth program ) 2. Run the com:J200 program you just created... From Workbench: double-click on Work:JF/Extras/com/J200 From shell, enter: run com:J200 Note that the dictionary space at startup is at least 200K. Note: You can run JForth environments from anywhere... they don't have to reside in com: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- JForth logical assignments... The 2 startup commands you added to s:user-startup, when executed, create some logical assignments for key JForth files. Some of these are used internally by the JForth system, others you will use as you program in JForth, for example, when specifying include files... include ji:exec/exec.j These are some of the most important examples... com: holds the released executable JForth binaries. ji: holds the JForth include files (which mirror the C include files) ju: holds source for many, many useful utilities jf: holds most JForth source code in case you want to rebuild com:JForth from com:JKernal cl: holds source for CLONE, JForth's standalone application generator jd: holds many compileable and cloneable demo source files jrx: holds ARexx support code ja: holds the source for some small but handy applications jo: holds source to ODE, JForth's object-oriented dialect mod: holds pre-compiled utilities such as the assembler, disassembler which are dynamically loaded as needed janim: holds animation support code ----------------------------------------------------------------------- How to use CLONE... To create a cloned standalone application... 1. Compile CLONE by entering: include cl:topfile 2. Compile your application 3. Enter the following: clone
...where
is the name of your application's main entry point. 4. When that finishes, enter: save-image
Work:myProgram ...where
is the name of your programs main entry point. and 'Work:myProgram' is the path/filename of your saved application. Note: add '-icon' to the end of the save-image command line to have a default icon created for your program. 5. Enter 'initclone' before performing another clone operation or performing a 'save-forth'. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- JForth provides many standard Forth operators, and a wealth of custom ones as well as many sophisticated, state-of-the-art features. It is strongly recommended that you read the documentation and have it available to get the most out of JForth. There is a LOT in JForth that you will never know about otherwise. The provided documentation is the complete JForth user manual, with index. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- We hope you enjoy JForth. Mike Haas and Phil Burk Creators of JForth P.S. Don't stop reading yet, because there's a... JFORTH MAILING LIST AVAILABLE! ============================== The following is from Martin Randall, a very enthusiastic fellow who, at the time of this writing, is doing yeoman's work supporting your JForth efforts. This may be the best example... his self-created and self-maintained JForth mailing list. This can be a real boon to JForth users... pooling resources really comes in handy! List instructions from Martin... To subscribe send mail to MDaemon@ChaosSolutions.com and put 'Subscribe JForth-List' as the only line in the body. To Unsubscribe send mail to MDaemon@ChaosSolutions.com and put 'Unsubscribe JForth-List' as the only line in the body. Any problem send a mail to List-Admin@ChaosSolutions.com To get a digest as opposed to individual e-mails send to MDaemon@ChaosSolutions.com and put 'SET DIGEST JForth-List' as the only message in the body. To change back to individual mails send to MDaemon@ChaosSolutions.com and put 'SET NONDIGEST JForth-List' as the only message in the body.