Quartus Forth Manual

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Frequently Asked Questions

  1. Q: When I exit Quartus and restart it, why is the Forth codespace/dataspace reset to its initial state?

    A: This is a design decision.  The state of Quartus Forth codespace/dataspace can be intricately involved with the PalmOS GUI state; since there's no reasonable way to preserve an unknown GUI state between sessions, the codespace/dataspace is not preserved either.  The feedback I've received from developers indicates that most are pleased with this arrangement; the time lost in re-loading source during incremental development is more than made up for by the time saved in not trying to track down a problem arising from the previous system state.

  2. Q: How is memory managed within the Palm OS?

    A: Memory in the Palm device is divided into two types: dynamic, and storage.  Dynamic memory can be freely read and written to, and is limited to an amount between 12K and 64K, depending on the version of the Palm ROM. Dynamic memory is used as working memory for the currently-running application. The Palm OS also uses dynamic memory for networking, and house-keeping.

    PalmOS databases (PRC and PDB files) are kept in storage memory.  Storage memory can be freely read, but cannot be written to without the use of special PalmOS system calls (e.g. DmWrite).  This affords protection to both applications and application data.

  3. Q: Any chance of blowing away other applications or databases if I mess up in Forth?

    A: No chance. Because of the way the Palm memory model is designed, other applications and data are protected from being accidentally corrupted or overwritten.  Barring the explicit use of DmWrite, you cannot accidentally modify applications or data kept in storage memory.

  4. Q: While developing Quartus applications, I find myself going back and forth from Quartus to the MemoPad.  Is there anything that makes this simpler?

    A: I recommend SwitchHack, a HackMaster-compatible extension.  Among other things, it allows you to switch back and forth between two applications with one pen-stroke.

    I also recommend creating a Graffiti shortcut named 'i' that types 'include '. This speeds up loading source during testing.

  5. Q: What's the word on case-sensitivity?

    A: Quartus is not case-sensitive as regards definition names and filenames. Accented characters are recognized as their equivalent letters without accents (a matches A matches ä). Between words in Forth programs, spaces and tabs are interchangable.

  6. Q: Quartus is a 16-bit Standard Forth.  How do I perform 32-bit memory accesses?

    A: The words @a !a 2@a 2!a c@a c!a are provided for 32-bit (absolute) memory accesses.  See the Words Specific to Quartus Forth for more details.

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© 1998, 1999 Neal Bridges. All rights reserved.