JForth Professional

Phil Burk

Brian Donovan

Jim King

with Martin Kees

COPYRIGHT NOTICE AND WARNING

This software package and manual are copyrighted 1986, 1987, 1988,1989 and 1991 by Delta Research or the original author if so specified in the source code file.

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.

This Manual is organized into four main sections. The first is a tutorial for people who are just learning Forth. If you already know Forth, you may want to just skim the main tutorial until you get to the parts that are unique to JForth. The second section describes the features of JForth as a general purpose programming language. The third section describes the parts of JForth that are specific to the Commodore Amiga. The fourth is an extensive glossary of the words defined in JForth and is intended as a reference.

I strongly recommend at least skimming the whole manual. There are a lot of features of JForth that are easy to miss. There is no point in recreating tools that already exist. I also recommend reading the Table of Contents carefully. I recommend also looking at the description of what files are on the disk to make sure you have not missed anything.

If you are the type of person who learns best by example, you may want to skip to the description of the demos in Chapter 3. You can print the source code for the demos which you will find in the JD: directory on the JTools disk.

Besides this manual, you will also need a good Amiga internals manual to make use of the Amiga libraries. The Intuition manual and the ROM Kernal manuals are particularly important. These are available from Commodore, and most computer book stores.

Be sure to also look at the README files on the disk, and look in the JDOC: directory for any late breaking news. Check out the Bibliography too for good Forth text books.

Instant Gratification

We recommend that you read Chapter 1 first, then do the tutorials. If you simply cannot wait then try the following steps. If you are confused by anything, slow down and go back to the tutorial.

Step 1: Make backups of all disks.

Step 2: From the WorkBench, open the Extras disk then open the Com drawer.

Step 3: Double Click on the JForth Icon.

Step 4: Wait for JForth to load then, in JForth, enter the following paying close attention to spaces. (Note: The word ." has no spaces between the dot and the quote.)

: HI ."Hello World! ;

HI

Congratulations. You have just written, compiled, linked and tested your first JForth program. JForth routines start with a colon and end with a semicolon.

Step 5: Insert the JForth disk and enter in JForth:

DOS EXECUTE JFORTH:ASSIGNS

Step 6: Now load the Graphics system by entering:

INCLUDE JU:AMIGA_GRAPH

Step 7: Now open a test window and draw a line:

GR.OPENTEST

20 10 GR.MOVE

123 45 GR.DRAW

Step 8: Now close the window and get to work on the tutorials. Enter:

GR.CLOSECURW

BYE

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the many people who have contributed to the development of JForth.

Special thanks to:
Martin Kees for his significant contributions to JForth 3.0,
Jack Woehr for his enthusiastic support of Forth in general, and JForth in particular, and for his valuable feedback;
Larry Polansky for his extensive support and early testing;
Marlin Schwanke for testing JForth and for hosting a JForth topic on his BBS at (619)477-2368;
Nick Didkovsky for his help with the Debugger, ARP and his fanatacism;
Bill Kelly and Kirk Baker for their contributions of public domain code and extensive testing;
Dave Sirag for his Floating Point implementation;
Bill Maginnis for his many helpful suggestions;
George Kozlowski for his version of U/ and testing;
Lynn Newton for help with the manual,

and to our Beta testers:

Robert Marsanyi,
Curtis Stanton,
Saul Lande,
Mark Hellman,
Chris Greene,
Henry Lowengard,
Jay Baldock,
Robert Dickow,
Rene LeBlanc,
Kaspar Osterbye,
Jay Christensen,
David Brown,
Peter Yadlowski,
Roy Brunges,
Jack Johnson

and others who have helped make JForth more usable for everybody.

Thanks also to the master hackers from Amiga who gave us this great machine.

[Also thanks to Martin Randall for helping us with the release of JForth as Freeware.]

We would also like to thank the neglected friends of us Delta Researchers for being so patient while we buried ourselves in the machine!

Sorry if we have left anybody out...it's not from lack of appreciation!