Pocket Forth is written in MDS assembly language. You must have or get the MDS assembler in order to use the Pocket Forth source files (see “MDS” below).
To assemble Pocket Forth, place all of the source files, listed below, on the top level of the startup disk. That is do not put them in any folder, nor on the desktop level if you are using system 7. Select and Open the three .asm files by double clicking them. When assembly is completed, Open the .link file. After the commotion stops, several new files, including PocketForth0.6, will be on the disk. Throw away all of the .rel and .map files as they are of no further use. If you wish to leave out the floating point number routines (if, for example, your computer does not have an FPU) stop at this point.
If your computer has an FPU (aka math coprocessor), or if you need to use floating point numbers on any Mac, you must compile the file FloatingPoint. Double click PocketForth0.6 while it is still on the top level of the disk, then open FloatingPoint from within Pocket Forth. When you are told the upgrade is complete, quit Pocket Forth and rename the file to PocketForth0.6f (or whatever, it's just to keep you straight). Then restart the computer and rebuild the desktop by pressing the option and command keys until a dialog box appears. The box asks if you want to rebuild the desk top; you do. You will now have the distinctive 'f' icon signifying the floating point version.
To produce the minimal version 0.6b, open the file StripExtras instead of FloatingPoint.
This will remove all of the balloon help resources and not load the floating point words.
The complete source code for Pocket Forth is contained in these 10 text files:
(Note: no additional 'library' or 'equate' files are needed.)
_Filename_______description___
pForth.link Link file
pForth.asm CODE resource
pForthDict.asm DICT resource
pForthRes.asm Resources used by all systems
aInterp.txt Interpreter code
aSupport.txt Window, menu, key and other event code
pfOptional.txt System 7 resources
Common.txt Bulk of the dictionary code
Traps.txt Toolbox trap macros for assembler
FloatingPoint Floating point i/o, stack, memory and primitive functions
NOTE:
MDS, Macintosh Development System is Apple's, now discontinued, 68000 assembler. To use MDS with modern systems, you must set the signature of .asm files to 'ASM ' and .link files to 'LINK'. Then place the files to be assembled (or linked) on the top level of the startup disk. The applications, ASM and LINK can be anywhere, however, only the document files should be opened. Within these restrictions, MDS works on any Mac/System configuration (oops, I don't know about Quandra).
(Consulair now sells an assembler that is compatable with MDS. I cannot say from experience whether it assembles Pocket Forth correctly. Consulair's ad gives their address as: PO Box 2192 Ketchum,ID 83340.)
