Annotation of gforth/gforth.ds, revision 1.17

1.1       anton       1: \input texinfo   @c -*-texinfo-*-
                      2: @comment The source is gforth.ds, from which gforth.texi is generated
                      3: @comment %**start of header (This is for running Texinfo on a region.)
1.4       anton       4: @setfilename gforth.info
1.17    ! anton       5: @settitle Gforth Manual
1.4       anton       6: @comment @setchapternewpage odd
1.1       anton       7: @comment %**end of header (This is for running Texinfo on a region.)
                      8: 
                      9: @ifinfo
1.17    ! anton      10: This file documents Gforth 0.1
1.1       anton      11: 
1.17    ! anton      12: Copyright @copyright{} 1994 Gforth Development Group
1.1       anton      13: 
                     14:      Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of
                     15:      this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice
                     16:      are preserved on all copies.
                     17:      
1.4       anton      18: @ignore
1.1       anton      19:      Permission is granted to process this file through TeX and print the
                     20:      results, provided the printed document carries a copying permission
                     21:      notice identical to this one except for the removal of this paragraph
                     22:      (this paragraph not being relevant to the printed manual).
                     23:      
1.4       anton      24: @end ignore
1.1       anton      25:      Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this
                     26:      manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided also that the
                     27:      sections entitled "Distribution" and "General Public License" are
                     28:      included exactly as in the original, and provided that the entire
                     29:      resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a permission
                     30:      notice identical to this one.
                     31:      
                     32:      Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual
                     33:      into another language, under the above conditions for modified versions,
                     34:      except that the sections entitled "Distribution" and "General Public
                     35:      License" may be included in a translation approved by the author instead
                     36:      of in the original English.
                     37: @end ifinfo
                     38: 
                     39: @titlepage
                     40: @sp 10
1.17    ! anton      41: @center @titlefont{Gforth Manual}
1.1       anton      42: @sp 2
1.17    ! anton      43: @center for version 0.1
1.1       anton      44: @sp 2
                     45: @center Anton Ertl
1.17    ! anton      46: @sp 3
        !            47: @center This manual is under construction
1.1       anton      48: 
                     49: @comment  The following two commands start the copyright page.
                     50: @page
                     51: @vskip 0pt plus 1filll
1.17    ! anton      52: Copyright @copyright{} 1994 Gforth Development Group
1.1       anton      53: 
                     54: @comment !! Published by ... or You can get a copy of this manual ...
                     55: 
                     56:      Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of
                     57:      this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice
                     58:      are preserved on all copies.
                     59:      
                     60:      Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this
                     61:      manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided also that the
                     62:      sections entitled "Distribution" and "General Public License" are
                     63:      included exactly as in the original, and provided that the entire
                     64:      resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a permission
                     65:      notice identical to this one.
                     66:      
                     67:      Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual
                     68:      into another language, under the above conditions for modified versions,
                     69:      except that the sections entitled "Distribution" and "General Public
                     70:      License" may be included in a translation approved by the author instead
                     71:      of in the original English.
                     72: @end titlepage
                     73: 
                     74: 
                     75: @node Top, License, (dir), (dir)
                     76: @ifinfo
1.17    ! anton      77: Gforth is a free implementation of ANS Forth available on many
1.1       anton      78: personal machines. This manual corresponds to version 0.0.
                     79: @end ifinfo
                     80: 
                     81: @menu
1.4       anton      82: * License::                     
1.17    ! anton      83: * Goals::                       About the Gforth Project
1.4       anton      84: * Other Books::                 Things you might want to read
1.17    ! anton      85: * Invocation::                  Starting Gforth
        !            86: * Words::                       Forth words available in Gforth
1.4       anton      87: * ANS conformance::             Implementation-defined options etc.
1.17    ! anton      88: * Model::                       The abstract machine of Gforth
        !            89: * Emacs and Gforth::            The Gforth Mode
1.4       anton      90: * Internals::                   Implementation details
                     91: * Bugs::                        How to report them
1.17    ! anton      92: * Pedigree::                    Ancestors of Gforth
1.4       anton      93: * Word Index::                  An item for each Forth word
                     94: * Node Index::                  An item for each node
1.1       anton      95: @end menu
                     96: 
                     97: @node License, Goals, Top, Top
                     98: @unnumbered License
                     99: !! Insert GPL here
                    100: 
                    101: @iftex
                    102: @unnumbered Preface
1.17    ! anton     103: This manual documents Gforth. The reader is expected to know
1.1       anton     104: Forth. This manual is primarily a reference manual. @xref{Other Books}
                    105: for introductory material.
                    106: @end iftex
                    107: 
                    108: @node    Goals, Other Books, License, Top
                    109: @comment node-name,     next,           previous, up
1.17    ! anton     110: @chapter Goals of Gforth
1.1       anton     111: @cindex Goals
1.17    ! anton     112: The goal of the Gforth Project is to develop a standard model for
1.1       anton     113: ANSI Forth. This can be split into several subgoals:
                    114: 
                    115: @itemize @bullet
                    116: @item
1.17    ! anton     117: Gforth should conform to the ANSI Forth standard.
1.1       anton     118: @item
                    119: It should be a model, i.e. it should define all the
                    120: implementation-dependent things.
                    121: @item
                    122: It should become standard, i.e. widely accepted and used. This goal
                    123: is the most difficult one.
                    124: @end itemize
                    125: 
1.17    ! anton     126: To achieve these goals Gforth should be
1.1       anton     127: @itemize @bullet
                    128: @item
                    129: Similar to previous models (fig-Forth, F83)
                    130: @item
                    131: Powerful. It should provide for all the things that are considered
                    132: necessary today and even some that are not yet considered necessary.
                    133: @item
                    134: Efficient. It should not get the reputation of being exceptionally
                    135: slow.
                    136: @item
                    137: Free.
                    138: @item
                    139: Available on many machines/easy to port.
                    140: @end itemize
                    141: 
1.17    ! anton     142: Have we achieved these goals? Gforth conforms to the ANS Forth
        !           143: standard. It may be considered a model, but we have not yet documented
1.1       anton     144: which parts of the model are stable and which parts we are likely to
1.17    ! anton     145: change. It certainly has not yet become a de facto standard. It has some
        !           146: similarities and some differences to previous models. It has some
        !           147: powerful features, but not yet everything that we envisioned. We
        !           148: certainly have achieved our execution speed goals (@pxref{Performance}).
        !           149: It is free and available on many machines.
1.1       anton     150: 
                    151: @node Other Books, Invocation, Goals, Top
                    152: @chapter Other books on ANS Forth
                    153: 
                    154: As the standard is relatively new, there are not many books out yet. It
1.17    ! anton     155: is not recommended to learn Forth by using Gforth and a book that is
1.1       anton     156: not written for ANS Forth, as you will not know your mistakes from the
                    157: deviations of the book.
                    158: 
                    159: There is, of course, the standard, the definite reference if you want to
                    160: write ANS Forth programs. It will be available in printed form from
                    161: Global Engineering Documents !! somtime in spring or summer 1994. If you
                    162: are lucky, you can still get dpANS6 (the draft that was approved as
                    163: standard) by aftp from ftp.uu.net:/vendor/minerva/x3j14.
                    164: 
                    165: @cite{Forth: The new model} by Jack Woehr (!! Publisher) is an
                    166: introductory book based on a draft version of the standard. It does not
                    167: cover the whole standard. It also contains interesting background
                    168: information (Jack Woehr was in the ANS Forth Technical Committe). It is
                    169: not appropriate for complete newbies, but programmers experienced in
                    170: other languages should find it ok.
                    171: 
                    172: @node Invocation, Words, Other Books, Top
                    173: @chapter Invocation
                    174: 
                    175: You will usually just say @code{gforth}. In many other cases the default
1.17    ! anton     176: Gforth image will be invoked like this:
1.1       anton     177: 
                    178: @example
                    179: gforth [files] [-e forth-code]
                    180: @end example
                    181: 
                    182: executing the contents of the files and the Forth code in the order they
                    183: are given.
                    184: 
                    185: In general, the command line looks like this:
                    186: 
                    187: @example
                    188: gforth [initialization options] [image-specific options]
                    189: @end example
                    190: 
                    191: The initialization options must come before the rest of the command
                    192: line. They are:
                    193: 
                    194: @table @code
                    195: @item --image-file @var{file}
                    196: Loads the Forth image @var{file} instead of the default
                    197: @file{gforth.fi}.
                    198: 
                    199: @item --path @var{path}
                    200: Uses @var{path} for searching the image file and Forth source code
                    201: files instead of the default in the environment variable
                    202: @code{GFORTHPATH} or the path specified at installation time (typically
                    203: @file{/usr/local/lib/gforth:.}). A path is given as a @code{:}-separated
                    204: list.
                    205: 
                    206: @item --dictionary-size @var{size}
                    207: @item -m @var{size}
                    208: Allocate @var{size} space for the Forth dictionary space instead of
                    209: using the default specified in the image (typically 256K). The
                    210: @var{size} specification consists of an integer and a unit (e.g.,
                    211: @code{4M}). The unit can be one of @code{b} (bytes), @code{e} (element
                    212: size, in this case Cells), @code{k} (kilobytes), and @code{M}
                    213: (Megabytes). If no unit is specified, @code{e} is used.
                    214: 
                    215: @item --data-stack-size @var{size}
                    216: @item -d @var{size}
                    217: Allocate @var{size} space for the data stack instead of using the
                    218: default specified in the image (typically 16K).
                    219: 
                    220: @item --return-stack-size @var{size}
                    221: @item -r @var{size}
                    222: Allocate @var{size} space for the return stack instead of using the
                    223: default specified in the image (typically 16K).
                    224: 
                    225: @item --fp-stack-size @var{size}
                    226: @item -f @var{size}
                    227: Allocate @var{size} space for the floating point stack instead of
                    228: using the default specified in the image (typically 16K). In this case
                    229: the unit specifier @code{e} refers to floating point numbers.
                    230: 
                    231: @item --locals-stack-size @var{size}
                    232: @item -l @var{size}
                    233: Allocate @var{size} space for the locals stack instead of using the
                    234: default specified in the image (typically 16K).
                    235: 
                    236: @end table
                    237: 
                    238: As explained above, the image-specific command-line arguments for the
                    239: default image @file{gforth.fi} consist of a sequence of filenames and
                    240: @code{-e @var{forth-code}} options that are interpreted in the seqence
                    241: in which they are given. The @code{-e @var{forth-code}} or
                    242: @code{--evaluate @var{forth-code}} option evaluates the forth
                    243: code. This option takes only one argument; if you want to evaluate more
                    244: Forth words, you have to quote them or use several @code{-e}s. To exit
                    245: after processing the command line (instead of entering interactive mode)
                    246: append @code{-e bye} to the command line.
                    247: 
                    248: Not yet implemented:
                    249: On startup the system first executes the system initialization file
                    250: (unless the option @code{--no-init-file} is given; note that the system
                    251: resulting from using this option may not be ANS Forth conformant). Then
                    252: the user initialization file @file{.gforth.fs} is executed, unless the
                    253: option @code{--no-rc} is given; this file is first searched in @file{.},
                    254: then in @file{~}, then in the normal path (see above).
                    255: 
1.4       anton     256: @node Words, ANS conformance, Invocation, Top
1.1       anton     257: @chapter Forth Words
                    258: 
                    259: @menu
1.4       anton     260: * Notation::                    
                    261: * Arithmetic::                  
                    262: * Stack Manipulation::          
                    263: * Memory access::               
                    264: * Control Structures::          
                    265: * Locals::                      
                    266: * Defining Words::              
                    267: * Wordlists::                   
                    268: * Files::                       
                    269: * Blocks::                      
                    270: * Other I/O::                   
                    271: * Programming Tools::           
                    272: * Threading Words::             
1.1       anton     273: @end menu
                    274: 
                    275: @node Notation, Arithmetic, Words, Words
                    276: @section Notation
                    277: 
                    278: The Forth words are described in this section in the glossary notation
                    279: that has become a de-facto standard for Forth texts, i.e.
                    280: 
1.4       anton     281: @format
1.1       anton     282: @var{word}     @var{Stack effect}   @var{wordset}   @var{pronunciation}
1.4       anton     283: @end format
1.1       anton     284: @var{Description}
                    285: 
                    286: @table @var
                    287: @item word
1.17    ! anton     288: The name of the word. BTW, Gforth is case insensitive, so you can
1.14      anton     289: type the words in in lower case (However, @pxref{core-idef}).
1.1       anton     290: 
                    291: @item Stack effect
                    292: The stack effect is written in the notation @code{@var{before} --
                    293: @var{after}}, where @var{before} and @var{after} describe the top of
                    294: stack entries before and after the execution of the word. The rest of
                    295: the stack is not touched by the word. The top of stack is rightmost,
1.17    ! anton     296: i.e., a stack sequence is written as it is typed in. Note that Gforth
1.1       anton     297: uses a separate floating point stack, but a unified stack
                    298: notation. Also, return stack effects are not shown in @var{stack
                    299: effect}, but in @var{Description}. The name of a stack item describes
                    300: the type and/or the function of the item. See below for a discussion of
                    301: the types.
                    302: 
                    303: @item pronunciation
                    304: How the word is pronounced
                    305: 
                    306: @item wordset
                    307: The ANS Forth standard is divided into several wordsets. A standard
                    308: system need not support all of them. So, the fewer wordsets your program
                    309: uses the more portable it will be in theory. However, we suspect that
                    310: most ANS Forth systems on personal machines will feature all
                    311: wordsets. Words that are not defined in the ANS standard have
                    312: @code{gforth} as wordset.
                    313: 
                    314: @item Description
                    315: A description of the behaviour of the word.
                    316: @end table
                    317: 
1.4       anton     318: The type of a stack item is specified by the character(s) the name
                    319: starts with:
1.1       anton     320: 
                    321: @table @code
                    322: @item f
                    323: Bool, i.e. @code{false} or @code{true}.
                    324: @item c
                    325: Char
                    326: @item w
                    327: Cell, can contain an integer or an address
                    328: @item n
                    329: signed integer
                    330: @item u
                    331: unsigned integer
                    332: @item d
                    333: double sized signed integer
                    334: @item ud
                    335: double sized unsigned integer
                    336: @item r
                    337: Float
                    338: @item a_
                    339: Cell-aligned address
                    340: @item c_
                    341: Char-aligned address (note that a Char is two bytes in Windows NT)
                    342: @item f_
                    343: Float-aligned address
                    344: @item df_
                    345: Address aligned for IEEE double precision float
                    346: @item sf_
                    347: Address aligned for IEEE single precision float
                    348: @item xt
                    349: Execution token, same size as Cell
                    350: @item wid
                    351: Wordlist ID, same size as Cell
                    352: @item f83name
                    353: Pointer to a name structure
                    354: @end table
                    355: 
1.4       anton     356: @node Arithmetic, Stack Manipulation, Notation, Words
1.1       anton     357: @section Arithmetic
                    358: Forth arithmetic is not checked, i.e., you will not hear about integer
                    359: overflow on addition or multiplication, you may hear about division by
                    360: zero if you are lucky. The operator is written after the operands, but
                    361: the operands are still in the original order. I.e., the infix @code{2-1}
                    362: corresponds to @code{2 1 -}. Forth offers a variety of division
                    363: operators. If you perform division with potentially negative operands,
                    364: you do not want to use @code{/} or @code{/mod} with its undefined
                    365: behaviour, but rather @code{fm/mod} or @code{sm/mod} (probably the
1.4       anton     366: former, @pxref{Mixed precision}).
                    367: 
                    368: @menu
                    369: * Single precision::            
                    370: * Bitwise operations::          
                    371: * Mixed precision::             operations with single and double-cell integers
                    372: * Double precision::            Double-cell integer arithmetic
                    373: * Floating Point::              
                    374: @end menu
1.1       anton     375: 
1.4       anton     376: @node Single precision, Bitwise operations, Arithmetic, Arithmetic
1.1       anton     377: @subsection Single precision
                    378: doc-+
                    379: doc--
                    380: doc-*
                    381: doc-/
                    382: doc-mod
                    383: doc-/mod
                    384: doc-negate
                    385: doc-abs
                    386: doc-min
                    387: doc-max
                    388: 
1.4       anton     389: @node Bitwise operations, Mixed precision, Single precision, Arithmetic
1.1       anton     390: @subsection Bitwise operations
                    391: doc-and
                    392: doc-or
                    393: doc-xor
                    394: doc-invert
                    395: doc-2*
                    396: doc-2/
                    397: 
1.4       anton     398: @node Mixed precision, Double precision, Bitwise operations, Arithmetic
1.1       anton     399: @subsection Mixed precision
                    400: doc-m+
                    401: doc-*/
                    402: doc-*/mod
                    403: doc-m*
                    404: doc-um*
                    405: doc-m*/
                    406: doc-um/mod
                    407: doc-fm/mod
                    408: doc-sm/rem
                    409: 
1.4       anton     410: @node Double precision, Floating Point, Mixed precision, Arithmetic
1.1       anton     411: @subsection Double precision
1.16      anton     412: 
                    413: The outer (aka text) interpreter converts numbers containing a dot into
                    414: a double precision number. Note that only numbers with the dot as last
                    415: character are standard-conforming.
                    416: 
1.1       anton     417: doc-d+
                    418: doc-d-
                    419: doc-dnegate
                    420: doc-dabs
                    421: doc-dmin
                    422: doc-dmax
                    423: 
1.4       anton     424: @node Floating Point,  , Double precision, Arithmetic
                    425: @subsection Floating Point
1.16      anton     426: 
                    427: The format of floating point numbers recognized by the outer (aka text)
                    428: interpreter is: a signed decimal number, possibly containing a decimal
                    429: point (@code{.}), followed by @code{E} or @code{e}, optionally followed
                    430: by a signed integer (the exponent). E.g., @code{1e} ist the same as
                    431: @code{+1.0e+1}. Note that a number without @code{e}
                    432: is not interpreted as floating-point number, but as double (if the
                    433: number contains a @code{.}) or single precision integer. Also,
                    434: conversions between string and floating point numbers always use base
                    435: 10, irrespective of the value of @code{BASE}. If @code{BASE} contains a
                    436: value greater then 14, the @code{E} may be interpreted as digit and the
                    437: number will be interpreted as integer, unless it has a signed exponent
                    438: (both @code{+} and @code{-} are allowed as signs).
1.4       anton     439: 
                    440: Angles in floating point operations are given in radians (a full circle
1.17    ! anton     441: has 2 pi radians). Note, that Gforth has a separate floating point
1.4       anton     442: stack, but we use the unified notation.
                    443: 
                    444: Floating point numbers have a number of unpleasant surprises for the
                    445: unwary (e.g., floating point addition is not associative) and even a few
                    446: for the wary. You should not use them unless you know what you are doing
                    447: or you don't care that the results you get are totally bogus. If you
                    448: want to learn about the problems of floating point numbers (and how to
1.11      anton     449: avoid them), you might start with @cite{David Goldberg, What Every
1.6       anton     450: Computer Scientist Should Know About Floating-Point Arithmetic, ACM
                    451: Computing Surveys 23(1):5@minus{}48, March 1991}.
1.4       anton     452: 
                    453: doc-f+
                    454: doc-f-
                    455: doc-f*
                    456: doc-f/
                    457: doc-fnegate
                    458: doc-fabs
                    459: doc-fmax
                    460: doc-fmin
                    461: doc-floor
                    462: doc-fround
                    463: doc-f**
                    464: doc-fsqrt
                    465: doc-fexp
                    466: doc-fexpm1
                    467: doc-fln
                    468: doc-flnp1
                    469: doc-flog
1.6       anton     470: doc-falog
1.4       anton     471: doc-fsin
                    472: doc-fcos
                    473: doc-fsincos
                    474: doc-ftan
                    475: doc-fasin
                    476: doc-facos
                    477: doc-fatan
                    478: doc-fatan2
                    479: doc-fsinh
                    480: doc-fcosh
                    481: doc-ftanh
                    482: doc-fasinh
                    483: doc-facosh
                    484: doc-fatanh
                    485: 
                    486: @node Stack Manipulation, Memory access, Arithmetic, Words
1.1       anton     487: @section Stack Manipulation
                    488: 
1.17    ! anton     489: Gforth has a data stack (aka parameter stack) for characters, cells,
1.1       anton     490: addresses, and double cells, a floating point stack for floating point
                    491: numbers, a return stack for storing the return addresses of colon
                    492: definitions and other data, and a locals stack for storing local
                    493: variables. Note that while every sane Forth has a separate floating
                    494: point stack, this is not strictly required; an ANS Forth system could
                    495: theoretically keep floating point numbers on the data stack. As an
                    496: additional difficulty, you don't know how many cells a floating point
                    497: number takes. It is reportedly possible to write words in a way that
                    498: they work also for a unified stack model, but we do not recommend trying
1.4       anton     499: it. Instead, just say that your program has an environmental dependency
                    500: on a separate FP stack.
                    501: 
                    502: Also, a Forth system is allowed to keep the local variables on the
1.1       anton     503: return stack. This is reasonable, as local variables usually eliminate
                    504: the need to use the return stack explicitly. So, if you want to produce
                    505: a standard complying program and if you are using local variables in a
                    506: word, forget about return stack manipulations in that word (see the
                    507: standard document for the exact rules).
                    508: 
1.4       anton     509: @menu
                    510: * Data stack::                  
                    511: * Floating point stack::        
                    512: * Return stack::                
                    513: * Locals stack::                
                    514: * Stack pointer manipulation::  
                    515: @end menu
                    516: 
                    517: @node Data stack, Floating point stack, Stack Manipulation, Stack Manipulation
1.1       anton     518: @subsection Data stack
                    519: doc-drop
                    520: doc-nip
                    521: doc-dup
                    522: doc-over
                    523: doc-tuck
                    524: doc-swap
                    525: doc-rot
                    526: doc--rot
                    527: doc-?dup
                    528: doc-pick
                    529: doc-roll
                    530: doc-2drop
                    531: doc-2nip
                    532: doc-2dup
                    533: doc-2over
                    534: doc-2tuck
                    535: doc-2swap
                    536: doc-2rot
                    537: 
1.4       anton     538: @node Floating point stack, Return stack, Data stack, Stack Manipulation
1.1       anton     539: @subsection Floating point stack
                    540: doc-fdrop
                    541: doc-fnip
                    542: doc-fdup
                    543: doc-fover
                    544: doc-ftuck
                    545: doc-fswap
                    546: doc-frot
                    547: 
1.4       anton     548: @node Return stack, Locals stack, Floating point stack, Stack Manipulation
1.1       anton     549: @subsection Return stack
                    550: doc->r
                    551: doc-r>
                    552: doc-r@
                    553: doc-rdrop
                    554: doc-2>r
                    555: doc-2r>
                    556: doc-2r@
                    557: doc-2rdrop
                    558: 
1.4       anton     559: @node Locals stack, Stack pointer manipulation, Return stack, Stack Manipulation
1.1       anton     560: @subsection Locals stack
                    561: 
1.4       anton     562: @node Stack pointer manipulation,  , Locals stack, Stack Manipulation
1.1       anton     563: @subsection Stack pointer manipulation
                    564: doc-sp@
                    565: doc-sp!
                    566: doc-fp@
                    567: doc-fp!
                    568: doc-rp@
                    569: doc-rp!
                    570: doc-lp@
                    571: doc-lp!
                    572: 
1.4       anton     573: @node Memory access, Control Structures, Stack Manipulation, Words
1.1       anton     574: @section Memory access
                    575: 
1.4       anton     576: @menu
                    577: * Stack-Memory transfers::      
                    578: * Address arithmetic::          
                    579: * Memory block access::         
                    580: @end menu
                    581: 
                    582: @node Stack-Memory transfers, Address arithmetic, Memory access, Memory access
1.1       anton     583: @subsection Stack-Memory transfers
                    584: 
                    585: doc-@
                    586: doc-!
                    587: doc-+!
                    588: doc-c@
                    589: doc-c!
                    590: doc-2@
                    591: doc-2!
                    592: doc-f@
                    593: doc-f!
                    594: doc-sf@
                    595: doc-sf!
                    596: doc-df@
                    597: doc-df!
                    598: 
1.4       anton     599: @node Address arithmetic, Memory block access, Stack-Memory transfers, Memory access
1.1       anton     600: @subsection Address arithmetic
                    601: 
                    602: ANS Forth does not specify the sizes of the data types. Instead, it
                    603: offers a number of words for computing sizes and doing address
                    604: arithmetic. Basically, address arithmetic is performed in terms of
                    605: address units (aus); on most systems the address unit is one byte. Note
                    606: that a character may have more than one au, so @code{chars} is no noop
                    607: (on systems where it is a noop, it compiles to nothing).
                    608: 
                    609: ANS Forth also defines words for aligning addresses for specific
                    610: addresses. Many computers require that accesses to specific data types
                    611: must only occur at specific addresses; e.g., that cells may only be
                    612: accessed at addresses divisible by 4. Even if a machine allows unaligned
                    613: accesses, it can usually perform aligned accesses faster. 
                    614: 
1.17    ! anton     615: For the performance-conscious: alignment operations are usually only
1.1       anton     616: necessary during the definition of a data structure, not during the
                    617: (more frequent) accesses to it.
                    618: 
                    619: ANS Forth defines no words for character-aligning addresses. This is not
                    620: an oversight, but reflects the fact that addresses that are not
                    621: char-aligned have no use in the standard and therefore will not be
                    622: created.
                    623: 
                    624: The standard guarantees that addresses returned by @code{CREATE}d words
1.17    ! anton     625: are cell-aligned; in addition, Gforth guarantees that these addresses
1.1       anton     626: are aligned for all purposes.
                    627: 
1.9       anton     628: Note that the standard defines a word @code{char}, which has nothing to
                    629: do with address arithmetic.
                    630: 
1.1       anton     631: doc-chars
                    632: doc-char+
                    633: doc-cells
                    634: doc-cell+
                    635: doc-align
                    636: doc-aligned
                    637: doc-floats
                    638: doc-float+
                    639: doc-falign
                    640: doc-faligned
                    641: doc-sfloats
                    642: doc-sfloat+
                    643: doc-sfalign
                    644: doc-sfaligned
                    645: doc-dfloats
                    646: doc-dfloat+
                    647: doc-dfalign
                    648: doc-dfaligned
1.10      anton     649: doc-maxalign
                    650: doc-maxaligned
                    651: doc-cfalign
                    652: doc-cfaligned
1.1       anton     653: doc-address-unit-bits
                    654: 
1.4       anton     655: @node Memory block access,  , Address arithmetic, Memory access
1.1       anton     656: @subsection Memory block access
                    657: 
                    658: doc-move
                    659: doc-erase
                    660: 
                    661: While the previous words work on address units, the rest works on
                    662: characters.
                    663: 
                    664: doc-cmove
                    665: doc-cmove>
                    666: doc-fill
                    667: doc-blank
                    668: 
1.4       anton     669: @node Control Structures, Locals, Memory access, Words
1.1       anton     670: @section Control Structures
                    671: 
                    672: Control structures in Forth cannot be used in interpret state, only in
                    673: compile state, i.e., in a colon definition. We do not like this
                    674: limitation, but have not seen a satisfying way around it yet, although
                    675: many schemes have been proposed.
                    676: 
1.4       anton     677: @menu
                    678: * Selection::                   
                    679: * Simple Loops::                
                    680: * Counted Loops::               
                    681: * Arbitrary control structures::  
                    682: * Calls and returns::           
                    683: * Exception Handling::          
                    684: @end menu
                    685: 
                    686: @node Selection, Simple Loops, Control Structures, Control Structures
1.1       anton     687: @subsection Selection
                    688: 
                    689: @example
                    690: @var{flag}
                    691: IF
                    692:   @var{code}
                    693: ENDIF
                    694: @end example
                    695: or
                    696: @example
                    697: @var{flag}
                    698: IF
                    699:   @var{code1}
                    700: ELSE
                    701:   @var{code2}
                    702: ENDIF
                    703: @end example
                    704: 
1.4       anton     705: You can use @code{THEN} instead of @code{ENDIF}. Indeed, @code{THEN} is
1.1       anton     706: standard, and @code{ENDIF} is not, although it is quite popular. We
                    707: recommend using @code{ENDIF}, because it is less confusing for people
                    708: who also know other languages (and is not prone to reinforcing negative
                    709: prejudices against Forth in these people). Adding @code{ENDIF} to a
                    710: system that only supplies @code{THEN} is simple:
                    711: @example
                    712: : endif   POSTPONE then ; immediate
                    713: @end example
                    714: 
                    715: [According to @cite{Webster's New Encyclopedic Dictionary}, @dfn{then
                    716: (adv.)}  has the following meanings:
                    717: @quotation
                    718: ... 2b: following next after in order ... 3d: as a necessary consequence
                    719: (if you were there, then you saw them).
                    720: @end quotation
                    721: Forth's @code{THEN} has the meaning 2b, whereas @code{THEN} in Pascal
                    722: and many other programming languages has the meaning 3d.]
                    723: 
                    724: We also provide the words @code{?dup-if} and @code{?dup-0=-if}, so you
                    725: can avoid using @code{?dup}.
                    726: 
                    727: @example
                    728: @var{n}
                    729: CASE
                    730:   @var{n1} OF @var{code1} ENDOF
                    731:   @var{n2} OF @var{code2} ENDOF
1.4       anton     732:   @dots{}
1.1       anton     733: ENDCASE
                    734: @end example
                    735: 
                    736: Executes the first @var{codei}, where the @var{ni} is equal to
                    737: @var{n}. A default case can be added by simply writing the code after
                    738: the last @code{ENDOF}. It may use @var{n}, which is on top of the stack,
                    739: but must not consume it.
                    740: 
1.4       anton     741: @node Simple Loops, Counted Loops, Selection, Control Structures
1.1       anton     742: @subsection Simple Loops
                    743: 
                    744: @example
                    745: BEGIN
                    746:   @var{code1}
                    747:   @var{flag}
                    748: WHILE
                    749:   @var{code2}
                    750: REPEAT
                    751: @end example
                    752: 
                    753: @var{code1} is executed and @var{flag} is computed. If it is true,
                    754: @var{code2} is executed and the loop is restarted; If @var{flag} is false, execution continues after the @code{REPEAT}.
                    755: 
                    756: @example
                    757: BEGIN
                    758:   @var{code}
                    759:   @var{flag}
                    760: UNTIL
                    761: @end example
                    762: 
                    763: @var{code} is executed. The loop is restarted if @code{flag} is false.
                    764: 
                    765: @example
                    766: BEGIN
                    767:   @var{code}
                    768: AGAIN
                    769: @end example
                    770: 
                    771: This is an endless loop.
                    772: 
1.4       anton     773: @node Counted Loops, Arbitrary control structures, Simple Loops, Control Structures
1.1       anton     774: @subsection Counted Loops
                    775: 
                    776: The basic counted loop is:
                    777: @example
                    778: @var{limit} @var{start}
                    779: ?DO
                    780:   @var{body}
                    781: LOOP
                    782: @end example
                    783: 
                    784: This performs one iteration for every integer, starting from @var{start}
                    785: and up to, but excluding @var{limit}. The counter, aka index, can be
                    786: accessed with @code{i}. E.g., the loop
                    787: @example
                    788: 10 0 ?DO
                    789:   i .
                    790: LOOP
                    791: @end example
                    792: prints
                    793: @example
                    794: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
                    795: @end example
                    796: The index of the innermost loop can be accessed with @code{i}, the index
                    797: of the next loop with @code{j}, and the index of the third loop with
                    798: @code{k}.
                    799: 
                    800: The loop control data are kept on the return stack, so there are some
                    801: restrictions on mixing return stack accesses and counted loop
                    802: words. E.g., if you put values on the return stack outside the loop, you
                    803: cannot read them inside the loop. If you put values on the return stack
                    804: within a loop, you have to remove them before the end of the loop and
                    805: before accessing the index of the loop.
                    806: 
                    807: There are several variations on the counted loop:
                    808: 
                    809: @code{LEAVE} leaves the innermost counted loop immediately.
                    810: 
                    811: @code{LOOP} can be replaced with @code{@var{n} +LOOP}; this updates the
                    812: index by @var{n} instead of by 1. The loop is terminated when the border
                    813: between @var{limit-1} and @var{limit} is crossed. E.g.:
                    814: 
1.2       anton     815: @code{4 0 ?DO  i .  2 +LOOP}   prints @code{0 2}
1.1       anton     816: 
1.2       anton     817: @code{4 1 ?DO  i .  2 +LOOP}   prints @code{1 3}
1.1       anton     818: 
                    819: The behaviour of @code{@var{n} +LOOP} is peculiar when @var{n} is negative:
                    820: 
1.2       anton     821: @code{-1 0 ?DO  i .  -1 +LOOP}  prints @code{0 -1}
1.1       anton     822: 
1.2       anton     823: @code{ 0 0 ?DO  i .  -1 +LOOP}  prints nothing
1.1       anton     824: 
                    825: Therefore we recommend avoiding using @code{@var{n} +LOOP} with negative
                    826: @var{n}. One alternative is @code{@var{n} S+LOOP}, where the negative
                    827: case behaves symmetrical to the positive case:
                    828: 
1.7       pazsan    829: @code{-2 0 ?DO  i .  -1 S+LOOP}  prints @code{0 -1}
1.1       anton     830: 
1.7       pazsan    831: @code{-1 0 ?DO  i .  -1 S+LOOP}  prints @code{0}
1.1       anton     832: 
1.7       pazsan    833: @code{ 0 0 ?DO  i .  -1 S+LOOP}  prints nothing
1.1       anton     834: 
1.2       anton     835: The loop is terminated when the border between @var{limit@minus{}sgn(n)} and
1.1       anton     836: @var{limit} is crossed. However, @code{S+LOOP} is not part of the ANS
                    837: Forth standard.
                    838: 
                    839: @code{?DO} can be replaced by @code{DO}. @code{DO} enters the loop even
                    840: when the start and the limit value are equal. We do not recommend using
                    841: @code{DO}. It will just give you maintenance troubles.
                    842: 
                    843: @code{UNLOOP} is used to prepare for an abnormal loop exit, e.g., via
                    844: @code{EXIT}. @code{UNLOOP} removes the loop control parameters from the
                    845: return stack so @code{EXIT} can get to its return address.
                    846: 
                    847: Another counted loop is
                    848: @example
                    849: @var{n}
                    850: FOR
                    851:   @var{body}
                    852: NEXT
                    853: @end example
                    854: This is the preferred loop of native code compiler writers who are too
1.17    ! anton     855: lazy to optimize @code{?DO} loops properly. In Gforth, this loop
1.1       anton     856: iterates @var{n+1} times; @code{i} produces values starting with @var{n}
                    857: and ending with 0. Other Forth systems may behave differently, even if
                    858: they support @code{FOR} loops.
                    859: 
1.4       anton     860: @node Arbitrary control structures, Calls and returns, Counted Loops, Control Structures
1.2       anton     861: @subsection Arbitrary control structures
                    862: 
                    863: ANS Forth permits and supports using control structures in a non-nested
                    864: way. Information about incomplete control structures is stored on the
                    865: control-flow stack. This stack may be implemented on the Forth data
1.17    ! anton     866: stack, and this is what we have done in Gforth.
1.2       anton     867: 
                    868: An @i{orig} entry represents an unresolved forward branch, a @i{dest}
                    869: entry represents a backward branch target. A few words are the basis for
                    870: building any control structure possible (except control structures that
                    871: need storage, like calls, coroutines, and backtracking).
                    872: 
1.3       anton     873: doc-if
                    874: doc-ahead
                    875: doc-then
                    876: doc-begin
                    877: doc-until
                    878: doc-again
                    879: doc-cs-pick
                    880: doc-cs-roll
1.2       anton     881: 
1.17    ! anton     882: On many systems control-flow stack items take one word, in Gforth they
1.2       anton     883: currently take three (this may change in the future). Therefore it is a
                    884: really good idea to manipulate the control flow stack with
                    885: @code{cs-pick} and @code{cs-roll}, not with data stack manipulation
                    886: words.
                    887: 
                    888: Some standard control structure words are built from these words:
                    889: 
1.3       anton     890: doc-else
                    891: doc-while
                    892: doc-repeat
1.2       anton     893: 
                    894: Counted loop words constitute a separate group of words:
                    895: 
1.3       anton     896: doc-?do
                    897: doc-do
                    898: doc-for
                    899: doc-loop
                    900: doc-s+loop
                    901: doc-+loop
                    902: doc-next
                    903: doc-leave
                    904: doc-?leave
                    905: doc-unloop
1.10      anton     906: doc-done
1.2       anton     907: 
                    908: The standard does not allow using @code{cs-pick} and @code{cs-roll} on
                    909: @i{do-sys}. Our system allows it, but it's your job to ensure that for
                    910: every @code{?DO} etc. there is exactly one @code{UNLOOP} on any path
1.3       anton     911: through the definition (@code{LOOP} etc. compile an @code{UNLOOP} on the
                    912: fall-through path). Also, you have to ensure that all @code{LEAVE}s are
1.7       pazsan    913: resolved (by using one of the loop-ending words or @code{DONE}).
1.2       anton     914: 
                    915: Another group of control structure words are
                    916: 
1.3       anton     917: doc-case
                    918: doc-endcase
                    919: doc-of
                    920: doc-endof
1.2       anton     921: 
                    922: @i{case-sys} and @i{of-sys} cannot be processed using @code{cs-pick} and
                    923: @code{cs-roll}.
                    924: 
1.3       anton     925: @subsubsection Programming Style
                    926: 
                    927: In order to ensure readability we recommend that you do not create
                    928: arbitrary control structures directly, but define new control structure
                    929: words for the control structure you want and use these words in your
                    930: program.
                    931: 
                    932: E.g., instead of writing
                    933: 
                    934: @example
                    935: begin
                    936:   ...
                    937: if [ 1 cs-roll ]
                    938:   ...
                    939: again then
                    940: @end example
                    941: 
                    942: we recommend defining control structure words, e.g.,
                    943: 
                    944: @example
                    945: : while ( dest -- orig dest )
                    946:  POSTPONE if
                    947:  1 cs-roll ; immediate
                    948: 
                    949: : repeat ( orig dest -- )
                    950:  POSTPONE again
                    951:  POSTPONE then ; immediate
                    952: @end example
                    953: 
                    954: and then using these to create the control structure:
                    955: 
                    956: @example
                    957: begin
                    958:   ...
                    959: while
                    960:   ...
                    961: repeat
                    962: @end example
                    963: 
                    964: That's much easier to read, isn't it? Of course, @code{BEGIN} and
                    965: @code{WHILE} are predefined, so in this example it would not be
                    966: necessary to define them.
                    967: 
1.4       anton     968: @node Calls and returns, Exception Handling, Arbitrary control structures, Control Structures
1.3       anton     969: @subsection Calls and returns
                    970: 
                    971: A definition can be called simply be writing the name of the
1.17    ! anton     972: definition. When the end of the definition is reached, it returns. An
        !           973: earlier return can be forced using
1.3       anton     974: 
                    975: doc-exit
                    976: 
                    977: Don't forget to clean up the return stack and @code{UNLOOP} any
                    978: outstanding @code{?DO}...@code{LOOP}s before @code{EXIT}ing. The
                    979: primitive compiled by @code{EXIT} is
                    980: 
                    981: doc-;s
                    982: 
1.4       anton     983: @node Exception Handling,  , Calls and returns, Control Structures
1.3       anton     984: @subsection Exception Handling
                    985: 
                    986: doc-catch
                    987: doc-throw
                    988: 
1.4       anton     989: @node Locals, Defining Words, Control Structures, Words
1.1       anton     990: @section Locals
                    991: 
1.2       anton     992: Local variables can make Forth programming more enjoyable and Forth
                    993: programs easier to read. Unfortunately, the locals of ANS Forth are
                    994: laden with restrictions. Therefore, we provide not only the ANS Forth
                    995: locals wordset, but also our own, more powerful locals wordset (we
                    996: implemented the ANS Forth locals wordset through our locals wordset).
                    997: 
                    998: @menu
1.17    ! anton     999: * Gforth locals::               
1.4       anton    1000: * ANS Forth locals::            
1.2       anton    1001: @end menu
                   1002: 
1.17    ! anton    1003: @node Gforth locals, ANS Forth locals, Locals, Locals
        !          1004: @subsection Gforth locals
1.2       anton    1005: 
                   1006: Locals can be defined with
                   1007: 
                   1008: @example
                   1009: @{ local1 local2 ... -- comment @}
                   1010: @end example
                   1011: or
                   1012: @example
                   1013: @{ local1 local2 ... @}
                   1014: @end example
                   1015: 
                   1016: E.g.,
                   1017: @example
                   1018: : max @{ n1 n2 -- n3 @}
                   1019:  n1 n2 > if
                   1020:    n1
                   1021:  else
                   1022:    n2
                   1023:  endif ;
                   1024: @end example
                   1025: 
                   1026: The similarity of locals definitions with stack comments is intended. A
                   1027: locals definition often replaces the stack comment of a word. The order
                   1028: of the locals corresponds to the order in a stack comment and everything
                   1029: after the @code{--} is really a comment.
                   1030: 
                   1031: This similarity has one disadvantage: It is too easy to confuse locals
                   1032: declarations with stack comments, causing bugs and making them hard to
                   1033: find. However, this problem can be avoided by appropriate coding
                   1034: conventions: Do not use both notations in the same program. If you do,
                   1035: they should be distinguished using additional means, e.g. by position.
                   1036: 
                   1037: The name of the local may be preceded by a type specifier, e.g.,
                   1038: @code{F:} for a floating point value:
                   1039: 
                   1040: @example
                   1041: : CX* @{ F: Ar F: Ai F: Br F: Bi -- Cr Ci @}
                   1042: \ complex multiplication
                   1043:  Ar Br f* Ai Bi f* f-
                   1044:  Ar Bi f* Ai Br f* f+ ;
                   1045: @end example
                   1046: 
1.17    ! anton    1047: Gforth currently supports cells (@code{W:}, @code{W^}), doubles
1.2       anton    1048: (@code{D:}, @code{D^}), floats (@code{F:}, @code{F^}) and characters
                   1049: (@code{C:}, @code{C^}) in two flavours: a value-flavoured local (defined
                   1050: with @code{W:}, @code{D:} etc.) produces its value and can be changed
                   1051: with @code{TO}. A variable-flavoured local (defined with @code{W^} etc.)
                   1052: produces its address (which becomes invalid when the variable's scope is
                   1053: left). E.g., the standard word @code{emit} can be defined in therms of
                   1054: @code{type} like this:
                   1055: 
                   1056: @example
                   1057: : emit @{ C^ char* -- @}
                   1058:     char* 1 type ;
                   1059: @end example
                   1060: 
                   1061: A local without type specifier is a @code{W:} local. Both flavours of
                   1062: locals are initialized with values from the data or FP stack.
                   1063: 
                   1064: Currently there is no way to define locals with user-defined data
                   1065: structures, but we are working on it.
                   1066: 
1.17    ! anton    1067: Gforth allows defining locals everywhere in a colon definition. This
1.7       pazsan   1068: poses the following questions:
1.2       anton    1069: 
1.4       anton    1070: @menu
                   1071: * Where are locals visible by name?::  
1.14      anton    1072: * How long do locals live?::    
1.4       anton    1073: * Programming Style::           
                   1074: * Implementation::              
                   1075: @end menu
                   1076: 
1.17    ! anton    1077: @node Where are locals visible by name?, How long do locals live?, Gforth locals, Gforth locals
1.2       anton    1078: @subsubsection Where are locals visible by name?
                   1079: 
                   1080: Basically, the answer is that locals are visible where you would expect
                   1081: it in block-structured languages, and sometimes a little longer. If you
                   1082: want to restrict the scope of a local, enclose its definition in
                   1083: @code{SCOPE}...@code{ENDSCOPE}.
                   1084: 
                   1085: doc-scope
                   1086: doc-endscope
                   1087: 
                   1088: These words behave like control structure words, so you can use them
                   1089: with @code{CS-PICK} and @code{CS-ROLL} to restrict the scope in
                   1090: arbitrary ways.
                   1091: 
                   1092: If you want a more exact answer to the visibility question, here's the
                   1093: basic principle: A local is visible in all places that can only be
                   1094: reached through the definition of the local@footnote{In compiler
                   1095: construction terminology, all places dominated by the definition of the
                   1096: local.}. In other words, it is not visible in places that can be reached
                   1097: without going through the definition of the local. E.g., locals defined
                   1098: in @code{IF}...@code{ENDIF} are visible until the @code{ENDIF}, locals
                   1099: defined in @code{BEGIN}...@code{UNTIL} are visible after the
                   1100: @code{UNTIL} (until, e.g., a subsequent @code{ENDSCOPE}).
                   1101: 
                   1102: The reasoning behind this solution is: We want to have the locals
                   1103: visible as long as it is meaningful. The user can always make the
                   1104: visibility shorter by using explicit scoping. In a place that can
                   1105: only be reached through the definition of a local, the meaning of a
                   1106: local name is clear. In other places it is not: How is the local
                   1107: initialized at the control flow path that does not contain the
                   1108: definition? Which local is meant, if the same name is defined twice in
                   1109: two independent control flow paths?
                   1110: 
                   1111: This should be enough detail for nearly all users, so you can skip the
                   1112: rest of this section. If you relly must know all the gory details and
                   1113: options, read on.
                   1114: 
                   1115: In order to implement this rule, the compiler has to know which places
                   1116: are unreachable. It knows this automatically after @code{AHEAD},
                   1117: @code{AGAIN}, @code{EXIT} and @code{LEAVE}; in other cases (e.g., after
                   1118: most @code{THROW}s), you can use the word @code{UNREACHABLE} to tell the
                   1119: compiler that the control flow never reaches that place. If
                   1120: @code{UNREACHABLE} is not used where it could, the only consequence is
                   1121: that the visibility of some locals is more limited than the rule above
                   1122: says. If @code{UNREACHABLE} is used where it should not (i.e., if you
                   1123: lie to the compiler), buggy code will be produced.
                   1124: 
                   1125: Another problem with this rule is that at @code{BEGIN}, the compiler
1.3       anton    1126: does not know which locals will be visible on the incoming
                   1127: back-edge. All problems discussed in the following are due to this
                   1128: ignorance of the compiler (we discuss the problems using @code{BEGIN}
                   1129: loops as examples; the discussion also applies to @code{?DO} and other
1.2       anton    1130: loops). Perhaps the most insidious example is:
                   1131: @example
                   1132: AHEAD
                   1133: BEGIN
                   1134:   x
                   1135: [ 1 CS-ROLL ] THEN
1.4       anton    1136:   @{ x @}
1.2       anton    1137:   ...
                   1138: UNTIL
                   1139: @end example
                   1140: 
                   1141: This should be legal according to the visibility rule. The use of
                   1142: @code{x} can only be reached through the definition; but that appears
                   1143: textually below the use.
                   1144: 
                   1145: From this example it is clear that the visibility rules cannot be fully
                   1146: implemented without major headaches. Our implementation treats common
                   1147: cases as advertised and the exceptions are treated in a safe way: The
                   1148: compiler makes a reasonable guess about the locals visible after a
                   1149: @code{BEGIN}; if it is too pessimistic, the
                   1150: user will get a spurious error about the local not being defined; if the
                   1151: compiler is too optimistic, it will notice this later and issue a
                   1152: warning. In the case above the compiler would complain about @code{x}
                   1153: being undefined at its use. You can see from the obscure examples in
                   1154: this section that it takes quite unusual control structures to get the
                   1155: compiler into trouble, and even then it will often do fine.
                   1156: 
                   1157: If the @code{BEGIN} is reachable from above, the most optimistic guess
                   1158: is that all locals visible before the @code{BEGIN} will also be
                   1159: visible after the @code{BEGIN}. This guess is valid for all loops that
                   1160: are entered only through the @code{BEGIN}, in particular, for normal
                   1161: @code{BEGIN}...@code{WHILE}...@code{REPEAT} and
                   1162: @code{BEGIN}...@code{UNTIL} loops and it is implemented in our
                   1163: compiler. When the branch to the @code{BEGIN} is finally generated by
                   1164: @code{AGAIN} or @code{UNTIL}, the compiler checks the guess and
                   1165: warns the user if it was too optimisitic:
                   1166: @example
                   1167: IF
1.4       anton    1168:   @{ x @}
1.2       anton    1169: BEGIN
                   1170:   \ x ? 
                   1171: [ 1 cs-roll ] THEN
                   1172:   ...
                   1173: UNTIL
                   1174: @end example
                   1175: 
                   1176: Here, @code{x} lives only until the @code{BEGIN}, but the compiler
                   1177: optimistically assumes that it lives until the @code{THEN}. It notices
                   1178: this difference when it compiles the @code{UNTIL} and issues a
                   1179: warning. The user can avoid the warning, and make sure that @code{x}
                   1180: is not used in the wrong area by using explicit scoping:
                   1181: @example
                   1182: IF
                   1183:   SCOPE
1.4       anton    1184:   @{ x @}
1.2       anton    1185:   ENDSCOPE
                   1186: BEGIN
                   1187: [ 1 cs-roll ] THEN
                   1188:   ...
                   1189: UNTIL
                   1190: @end example
                   1191: 
                   1192: Since the guess is optimistic, there will be no spurious error messages
                   1193: about undefined locals.
                   1194: 
                   1195: If the @code{BEGIN} is not reachable from above (e.g., after
                   1196: @code{AHEAD} or @code{EXIT}), the compiler cannot even make an
                   1197: optimistic guess, as the locals visible after the @code{BEGIN} may be
                   1198: defined later. Therefore, the compiler assumes that no locals are
1.17    ! anton    1199: visible after the @code{BEGIN}. However, the user can use
1.2       anton    1200: @code{ASSUME-LIVE} to make the compiler assume that the same locals are
1.17    ! anton    1201: visible at the BEGIN as at the point where the top control-flow stack
        !          1202: item was created.
1.2       anton    1203: 
                   1204: doc-assume-live
                   1205: 
                   1206: E.g.,
                   1207: @example
1.4       anton    1208: @{ x @}
1.2       anton    1209: AHEAD
                   1210: ASSUME-LIVE
                   1211: BEGIN
                   1212:   x
                   1213: [ 1 CS-ROLL ] THEN
                   1214:   ...
                   1215: UNTIL
                   1216: @end example
                   1217: 
                   1218: Other cases where the locals are defined before the @code{BEGIN} can be
                   1219: handled by inserting an appropriate @code{CS-ROLL} before the
                   1220: @code{ASSUME-LIVE} (and changing the control-flow stack manipulation
                   1221: behind the @code{ASSUME-LIVE}).
                   1222: 
                   1223: Cases where locals are defined after the @code{BEGIN} (but should be
                   1224: visible immediately after the @code{BEGIN}) can only be handled by
                   1225: rearranging the loop. E.g., the ``most insidious'' example above can be
                   1226: arranged into:
                   1227: @example
                   1228: BEGIN
1.4       anton    1229:   @{ x @}
1.2       anton    1230:   ... 0=
                   1231: WHILE
                   1232:   x
                   1233: REPEAT
                   1234: @end example
                   1235: 
1.17    ! anton    1236: @node How long do locals live?, Programming Style, Where are locals visible by name?, Gforth locals
1.2       anton    1237: @subsubsection How long do locals live?
                   1238: 
                   1239: The right answer for the lifetime question would be: A local lives at
                   1240: least as long as it can be accessed. For a value-flavoured local this
                   1241: means: until the end of its visibility. However, a variable-flavoured
                   1242: local could be accessed through its address far beyond its visibility
                   1243: scope. Ultimately, this would mean that such locals would have to be
                   1244: garbage collected. Since this entails un-Forth-like implementation
                   1245: complexities, I adopted the same cowardly solution as some other
                   1246: languages (e.g., C): The local lives only as long as it is visible;
                   1247: afterwards its address is invalid (and programs that access it
                   1248: afterwards are erroneous).
                   1249: 
1.17    ! anton    1250: @node Programming Style, Implementation, How long do locals live?, Gforth locals
1.2       anton    1251: @subsubsection Programming Style
                   1252: 
                   1253: The freedom to define locals anywhere has the potential to change
                   1254: programming styles dramatically. In particular, the need to use the
                   1255: return stack for intermediate storage vanishes. Moreover, all stack
                   1256: manipulations (except @code{PICK}s and @code{ROLL}s with run-time
                   1257: determined arguments) can be eliminated: If the stack items are in the
                   1258: wrong order, just write a locals definition for all of them; then
                   1259: write the items in the order you want.
                   1260: 
                   1261: This seems a little far-fetched and eliminating stack manipulations is
1.4       anton    1262: unlikely to become a conscious programming objective. Still, the number
                   1263: of stack manipulations will be reduced dramatically if local variables
1.17    ! anton    1264: are used liberally (e.g., compare @code{max} in @ref{Gforth locals} with
1.4       anton    1265: a traditional implementation of @code{max}).
1.2       anton    1266: 
                   1267: This shows one potential benefit of locals: making Forth programs more
                   1268: readable. Of course, this benefit will only be realized if the
                   1269: programmers continue to honour the principle of factoring instead of
                   1270: using the added latitude to make the words longer.
                   1271: 
                   1272: Using @code{TO} can and should be avoided.  Without @code{TO},
                   1273: every value-flavoured local has only a single assignment and many
                   1274: advantages of functional languages apply to Forth. I.e., programs are
                   1275: easier to analyse, to optimize and to read: It is clear from the
                   1276: definition what the local stands for, it does not turn into something
                   1277: different later.
                   1278: 
                   1279: E.g., a definition using @code{TO} might look like this:
                   1280: @example
                   1281: : strcmp @{ addr1 u1 addr2 u2 -- n @}
                   1282:  u1 u2 min 0
                   1283:  ?do
                   1284:    addr1 c@ addr2 c@ - ?dup
                   1285:    if
                   1286:      unloop exit
                   1287:    then
                   1288:    addr1 char+ TO addr1
                   1289:    addr2 char+ TO addr2
                   1290:  loop
                   1291:  u1 u2 - ;
                   1292: @end example
                   1293: Here, @code{TO} is used to update @code{addr1} and @code{addr2} at
                   1294: every loop iteration. @code{strcmp} is a typical example of the
                   1295: readability problems of using @code{TO}. When you start reading
                   1296: @code{strcmp}, you think that @code{addr1} refers to the start of the
                   1297: string. Only near the end of the loop you realize that it is something
                   1298: else.
                   1299: 
                   1300: This can be avoided by defining two locals at the start of the loop that
                   1301: are initialized with the right value for the current iteration.
                   1302: @example
                   1303: : strcmp @{ addr1 u1 addr2 u2 -- n @}
                   1304:  addr1 addr2
                   1305:  u1 u2 min 0 
                   1306:  ?do @{ s1 s2 @}
                   1307:    s1 c@ s2 c@ - ?dup 
                   1308:    if
                   1309:      unloop exit
                   1310:    then
                   1311:    s1 char+ s2 char+
                   1312:  loop
                   1313:  2drop
                   1314:  u1 u2 - ;
                   1315: @end example
                   1316: Here it is clear from the start that @code{s1} has a different value
                   1317: in every loop iteration.
                   1318: 
1.17    ! anton    1319: @node Implementation,  , Programming Style, Gforth locals
1.2       anton    1320: @subsubsection Implementation
                   1321: 
1.17    ! anton    1322: Gforth uses an extra locals stack. The most compelling reason for
1.2       anton    1323: this is that the return stack is not float-aligned; using an extra stack
                   1324: also eliminates the problems and restrictions of using the return stack
                   1325: as locals stack. Like the other stacks, the locals stack grows toward
                   1326: lower addresses. A few primitives allow an efficient implementation:
                   1327: 
                   1328: doc-@local#
                   1329: doc-f@local#
                   1330: doc-laddr#
                   1331: doc-lp+!#
                   1332: doc-lp!
                   1333: doc->l
                   1334: doc-f>l
                   1335: 
                   1336: In addition to these primitives, some specializations of these
                   1337: primitives for commonly occurring inline arguments are provided for
                   1338: efficiency reasons, e.g., @code{@@local0} as specialization of
                   1339: @code{@@local#} for the inline argument 0. The following compiling words
                   1340: compile the right specialized version, or the general version, as
                   1341: appropriate:
                   1342: 
1.12      anton    1343: doc-compile-@local
                   1344: doc-compile-f@local
1.2       anton    1345: doc-compile-lp+!
                   1346: 
                   1347: Combinations of conditional branches and @code{lp+!#} like
                   1348: @code{?branch-lp+!#} (the locals pointer is only changed if the branch
                   1349: is taken) are provided for efficiency and correctness in loops.
                   1350: 
                   1351: A special area in the dictionary space is reserved for keeping the
                   1352: local variable names. @code{@{} switches the dictionary pointer to this
                   1353: area and @code{@}} switches it back and generates the locals
                   1354: initializing code. @code{W:} etc.@ are normal defining words. This
                   1355: special area is cleared at the start of every colon definition.
                   1356: 
1.17    ! anton    1357: A special feature of Gforth's dictionary is used to implement the
1.2       anton    1358: definition of locals without type specifiers: every wordlist (aka
                   1359: vocabulary) has its own methods for searching
1.4       anton    1360: etc. (@pxref{Wordlists}). For the present purpose we defined a wordlist
1.2       anton    1361: with a special search method: When it is searched for a word, it
                   1362: actually creates that word using @code{W:}. @code{@{} changes the search
                   1363: order to first search the wordlist containing @code{@}}, @code{W:} etc.,
                   1364: and then the wordlist for defining locals without type specifiers.
                   1365: 
                   1366: The lifetime rules support a stack discipline within a colon
                   1367: definition: The lifetime of a local is either nested with other locals
                   1368: lifetimes or it does not overlap them.
                   1369: 
                   1370: At @code{BEGIN}, @code{IF}, and @code{AHEAD} no code for locals stack
                   1371: pointer manipulation is generated. Between control structure words
                   1372: locals definitions can push locals onto the locals stack. @code{AGAIN}
                   1373: is the simplest of the other three control flow words. It has to
                   1374: restore the locals stack depth of the corresponding @code{BEGIN}
                   1375: before branching. The code looks like this:
                   1376: @format
                   1377: @code{lp+!#} current-locals-size @minus{} dest-locals-size
                   1378: @code{branch} <begin>
                   1379: @end format
                   1380: 
                   1381: @code{UNTIL} is a little more complicated: If it branches back, it
                   1382: must adjust the stack just like @code{AGAIN}. But if it falls through,
                   1383: the locals stack must not be changed. The compiler generates the
                   1384: following code:
                   1385: @format
                   1386: @code{?branch-lp+!#} <begin> current-locals-size @minus{} dest-locals-size
                   1387: @end format
                   1388: The locals stack pointer is only adjusted if the branch is taken.
                   1389: 
                   1390: @code{THEN} can produce somewhat inefficient code:
                   1391: @format
                   1392: @code{lp+!#} current-locals-size @minus{} orig-locals-size
                   1393: <orig target>:
                   1394: @code{lp+!#} orig-locals-size @minus{} new-locals-size
                   1395: @end format
                   1396: The second @code{lp+!#} adjusts the locals stack pointer from the
1.4       anton    1397: level at the @var{orig} point to the level after the @code{THEN}. The
1.2       anton    1398: first @code{lp+!#} adjusts the locals stack pointer from the current
                   1399: level to the level at the orig point, so the complete effect is an
                   1400: adjustment from the current level to the right level after the
                   1401: @code{THEN}.
                   1402: 
                   1403: In a conventional Forth implementation a dest control-flow stack entry
                   1404: is just the target address and an orig entry is just the address to be
                   1405: patched. Our locals implementation adds a wordlist to every orig or dest
                   1406: item. It is the list of locals visible (or assumed visible) at the point
                   1407: described by the entry. Our implementation also adds a tag to identify
                   1408: the kind of entry, in particular to differentiate between live and dead
                   1409: (reachable and unreachable) orig entries.
                   1410: 
                   1411: A few unusual operations have to be performed on locals wordlists:
                   1412: 
                   1413: doc-common-list
                   1414: doc-sub-list?
                   1415: doc-list-size
                   1416: 
                   1417: Several features of our locals wordlist implementation make these
                   1418: operations easy to implement: The locals wordlists are organised as
                   1419: linked lists; the tails of these lists are shared, if the lists
                   1420: contain some of the same locals; and the address of a name is greater
                   1421: than the address of the names behind it in the list.
                   1422: 
                   1423: Another important implementation detail is the variable
                   1424: @code{dead-code}. It is used by @code{BEGIN} and @code{THEN} to
                   1425: determine if they can be reached directly or only through the branch
                   1426: that they resolve. @code{dead-code} is set by @code{UNREACHABLE},
                   1427: @code{AHEAD}, @code{EXIT} etc., and cleared at the start of a colon
                   1428: definition, by @code{BEGIN} and usually by @code{THEN}.
                   1429: 
                   1430: Counted loops are similar to other loops in most respects, but
                   1431: @code{LEAVE} requires special attention: It performs basically the same
                   1432: service as @code{AHEAD}, but it does not create a control-flow stack
                   1433: entry. Therefore the information has to be stored elsewhere;
                   1434: traditionally, the information was stored in the target fields of the
                   1435: branches created by the @code{LEAVE}s, by organizing these fields into a
                   1436: linked list. Unfortunately, this clever trick does not provide enough
                   1437: space for storing our extended control flow information. Therefore, we
                   1438: introduce another stack, the leave stack. It contains the control-flow
                   1439: stack entries for all unresolved @code{LEAVE}s.
                   1440: 
                   1441: Local names are kept until the end of the colon definition, even if
                   1442: they are no longer visible in any control-flow path. In a few cases
                   1443: this may lead to increased space needs for the locals name area, but
                   1444: usually less than reclaiming this space would cost in code size.
                   1445: 
                   1446: 
1.17    ! anton    1447: @node ANS Forth locals,  , Gforth locals, Locals
1.2       anton    1448: @subsection ANS Forth locals
                   1449: 
                   1450: The ANS Forth locals wordset does not define a syntax for locals, but
                   1451: words that make it possible to define various syntaxes. One of the
1.17    ! anton    1452: possible syntaxes is a subset of the syntax we used in the Gforth locals
1.2       anton    1453: wordset, i.e.:
                   1454: 
                   1455: @example
                   1456: @{ local1 local2 ... -- comment @}
                   1457: @end example
                   1458: or
                   1459: @example
                   1460: @{ local1 local2 ... @}
                   1461: @end example
                   1462: 
                   1463: The order of the locals corresponds to the order in a stack comment. The
                   1464: restrictions are:
1.1       anton    1465: 
1.2       anton    1466: @itemize @bullet
                   1467: @item
1.17    ! anton    1468: Locals can only be cell-sized values (no type specifiers are allowed).
1.2       anton    1469: @item
                   1470: Locals can be defined only outside control structures.
                   1471: @item
                   1472: Locals can interfere with explicit usage of the return stack. For the
                   1473: exact (and long) rules, see the standard. If you don't use return stack
1.17    ! anton    1474: accessing words in a definition using locals, you will be all right. The
1.2       anton    1475: purpose of this rule is to make locals implementation on the return
                   1476: stack easier.
                   1477: @item
                   1478: The whole definition must be in one line.
                   1479: @end itemize
                   1480: 
                   1481: Locals defined in this way behave like @code{VALUE}s
1.4       anton    1482: (@xref{Values}). I.e., they are initialized from the stack. Using their
1.2       anton    1483: name produces their value. Their value can be changed using @code{TO}.
                   1484: 
1.17    ! anton    1485: Since this syntax is supported by Gforth directly, you need not do
1.2       anton    1486: anything to use it. If you want to port a program using this syntax to
                   1487: another ANS Forth system, use @file{anslocal.fs} to implement the syntax
                   1488: on the other system.
                   1489: 
                   1490: Note that a syntax shown in the standard, section A.13 looks
                   1491: similar, but is quite different in having the order of locals
                   1492: reversed. Beware!
                   1493: 
                   1494: The ANS Forth locals wordset itself consists of the following word
                   1495: 
                   1496: doc-(local)
                   1497: 
                   1498: The ANS Forth locals extension wordset defines a syntax, but it is so
                   1499: awful that we strongly recommend not to use it. We have implemented this
1.17    ! anton    1500: syntax to make porting to Gforth easy, but do not document it here. The
1.2       anton    1501: problem with this syntax is that the locals are defined in an order
                   1502: reversed with respect to the standard stack comment notation, making
                   1503: programs harder to read, and easier to misread and miswrite. The only
                   1504: merit of this syntax is that it is easy to implement using the ANS Forth
                   1505: locals wordset.
1.3       anton    1506: 
1.4       anton    1507: @node Defining Words, Wordlists, Locals, Words
                   1508: @section Defining Words
                   1509: 
1.14      anton    1510: @menu
                   1511: * Values::                      
                   1512: @end menu
                   1513: 
1.4       anton    1514: @node Values,  , Defining Words, Defining Words
                   1515: @subsection Values
                   1516: 
                   1517: @node Wordlists, Files, Defining Words, Words
                   1518: @section Wordlists
                   1519: 
                   1520: @node Files, Blocks, Wordlists, Words
                   1521: @section Files
                   1522: 
                   1523: @node Blocks, Other I/O, Files, Words
                   1524: @section Blocks
                   1525: 
                   1526: @node Other I/O, Programming Tools, Blocks, Words
                   1527: @section Other I/O
                   1528: 
                   1529: @node Programming Tools, Threading Words, Other I/O, Words
                   1530: @section Programming Tools
                   1531: 
1.5       anton    1532: @menu
                   1533: * Debugging::                   Simple and quick.
                   1534: * Assertions::                  Making your programs self-checking.
                   1535: @end menu
                   1536: 
                   1537: @node Debugging, Assertions, Programming Tools, Programming Tools
1.4       anton    1538: @subsection Debugging
                   1539: 
                   1540: The simple debugging aids provided in @file{debugging.fs}
                   1541: are meant to support a different style of debugging than the
                   1542: tracing/stepping debuggers used in languages with long turn-around
                   1543: times.
                   1544: 
                   1545: A much better (faster) way in fast-compilig languages is to add
                   1546: printing code at well-selected places, let the program run, look at
                   1547: the output, see where things went wrong, add more printing code, etc.,
                   1548: until the bug is found.
                   1549: 
                   1550: The word @code{~~} is easy to insert. It just prints debugging
                   1551: information (by default the source location and the stack contents). It
                   1552: is also easy to remove (@kbd{C-x ~} in the Emacs Forth mode to
                   1553: query-replace them with nothing). The deferred words
                   1554: @code{printdebugdata} and @code{printdebugline} control the output of
                   1555: @code{~~}. The default source location output format works well with
                   1556: Emacs' compilation mode, so you can step through the program at the
1.5       anton    1557: source level using @kbd{C-x `} (the advantage over a stepping debugger
                   1558: is that you can step in any direction and you know where the crash has
                   1559: happened or where the strange data has occurred).
1.4       anton    1560: 
                   1561: Note that the default actions clobber the contents of the pictured
                   1562: numeric output string, so you should not use @code{~~}, e.g., between
                   1563: @code{<#} and @code{#>}.
                   1564: 
                   1565: doc-~~
                   1566: doc-printdebugdata
                   1567: doc-printdebugline
                   1568: 
1.5       anton    1569: @node Assertions,  , Debugging, Programming Tools
1.4       anton    1570: @subsection Assertions
                   1571: 
1.5       anton    1572: It is a good idea to make your programs self-checking, in particular, if
                   1573: you use an assumption (e.g., that a certain field of a data structure is
1.17    ! anton    1574: never zero) that may become wrong during maintenance. Gforth supports
1.5       anton    1575: assertions for this purpose. They are used like this:
                   1576: 
                   1577: @example
                   1578: assert( @var{flag} )
                   1579: @end example
                   1580: 
                   1581: The code between @code{assert(} and @code{)} should compute a flag, that
                   1582: should be true if everything is alright and false otherwise. It should
                   1583: not change anything else on the stack. The overall stack effect of the
                   1584: assertion is @code{( -- )}. E.g.
                   1585: 
                   1586: @example
                   1587: assert( 1 1 + 2 = ) \ what we learn in school
                   1588: assert( dup 0<> ) \ assert that the top of stack is not zero
                   1589: assert( false ) \ this code should not be reached
                   1590: @end example
                   1591: 
                   1592: The need for assertions is different at different times. During
                   1593: debugging, we want more checking, in production we sometimes care more
                   1594: for speed. Therefore, assertions can be turned off, i.e., the assertion
                   1595: becomes a comment. Depending on the importance of an assertion and the
                   1596: time it takes to check it, you may want to turn off some assertions and
1.17    ! anton    1597: keep others turned on. Gforth provides several levels of assertions for
1.5       anton    1598: this purpose:
                   1599: 
                   1600: doc-assert0(
                   1601: doc-assert1(
                   1602: doc-assert2(
                   1603: doc-assert3(
                   1604: doc-assert(
                   1605: doc-)
                   1606: 
                   1607: @code{Assert(} is the same as @code{assert1(}. The variable
                   1608: @code{assert-level} specifies the highest assertions that are turned
                   1609: on. I.e., at the default @code{assert-level} of one, @code{assert0(} and
                   1610: @code{assert1(} assertions perform checking, while @code{assert2(} and
                   1611: @code{assert3(} assertions are treated as comments.
                   1612: 
                   1613: Note that the @code{assert-level} is evaluated at compile-time, not at
                   1614: run-time. I.e., you cannot turn assertions on or off at run-time, you
                   1615: have to set the @code{assert-level} appropriately before compiling a
                   1616: piece of code. You can compile several pieces of code at several
                   1617: @code{assert-level}s (e.g., a trusted library at level 1 and newly
                   1618: written code at level 3).
                   1619: 
                   1620: doc-assert-level
                   1621: 
                   1622: If an assertion fails, a message compatible with Emacs' compilation mode
                   1623: is produced and the execution is aborted (currently with @code{ABORT"}.
                   1624: If there is interest, we will introduce a special throw code. But if you
                   1625: intend to @code{catch} a specific condition, using @code{throw} is
                   1626: probably more appropriate than an assertion).
                   1627: 
1.4       anton    1628: @node Threading Words,  , Programming Tools, Words
                   1629: @section Threading Words
                   1630: 
                   1631: These words provide access to code addresses and other threading stuff
1.17    ! anton    1632: in Gforth (and, possibly, other interpretive Forths). It more or less
1.4       anton    1633: abstracts away the differences between direct and indirect threading
                   1634: (and, for direct threading, the machine dependences). However, at
                   1635: present this wordset is still inclomplete. It is also pretty low-level;
                   1636: some day it will hopefully be made unnecessary by an internals words set
                   1637: that abstracts implementation details away completely.
                   1638: 
                   1639: doc->code-address
                   1640: doc->does-code
                   1641: doc-code-address!
                   1642: doc-does-code!
                   1643: doc-does-handler!
                   1644: doc-/does-handler
                   1645: 
1.14      anton    1646: 
                   1647: 
1.4       anton    1648: @node ANS conformance, Model, Words, Top
                   1649: @chapter ANS conformance
                   1650: 
1.17    ! anton    1651: To the best of our knowledge, Gforth is an
1.14      anton    1652: 
1.15      anton    1653: ANS Forth System
                   1654: @itemize
                   1655: @item providing the Core Extensions word set
                   1656: @item providing the Block word set
                   1657: @item providing the Block Extensions word set
                   1658: @item providing the Double-Number word set
                   1659: @item providing the Double-Number Extensions word set
                   1660: @item providing the Exception word set
                   1661: @item providing the Exception Extensions word set
                   1662: @item providing the Facility word set
                   1663: @item providing @code{MS} and @code{TIME&DATE} from the Facility Extensions word set
                   1664: @item providing the File Access word set
                   1665: @item providing the File Access Extensions word set
                   1666: @item providing the Floating-Point word set
                   1667: @item providing the Floating-Point Extensions word set
                   1668: @item providing the Locals word set
                   1669: @item providing the Locals Extensions word set
                   1670: @item providing the Memory-Allocation word set
                   1671: @item providing the Memory-Allocation Extensions word set (that one's easy)
                   1672: @item providing the Programming-Tools word set
                   1673: @item providing @code{AHEAD}, @code{BYE}, @code{CS-PICK}, @code{CS-ROLL}, @code{STATE}, @code{[ELSE]}, @code{[IF]}, @code{[THEN]} from the Programming-Tools Extensions word set
                   1674: @item providing the Search-Order word set
                   1675: @item providing the Search-Order Extensions word set
                   1676: @item providing the String word set
                   1677: @item providing the String Extensions word set (another easy one)
                   1678: @end itemize
                   1679: 
                   1680: In addition, ANS Forth systems are required to document certain
                   1681: implementation choices. This chapter tries to meet these
                   1682: requirements. In many cases it gives a way to ask the system for the
                   1683: information instead of providing the information directly, in
                   1684: particular, if the information depends on the processor, the operating
                   1685: system or the installation options chosen, or if they are likely to
1.17    ! anton    1686: change during the maintenance of Gforth.
1.15      anton    1687: 
1.14      anton    1688: @comment The framework for the rest has been taken from pfe.
                   1689: 
                   1690: @menu
                   1691: * The Core Words::              
                   1692: * The optional Block word set::  
                   1693: * The optional Double Number word set::  
                   1694: * The optional Exception word set::  
                   1695: * The optional Facility word set::  
                   1696: * The optional File-Access word set::  
                   1697: * The optional Floating-Point word set::  
                   1698: * The optional Locals word set::  
                   1699: * The optional Memory-Allocation word set::  
                   1700: * The optional Programming-Tools word set::  
                   1701: * The optional Search-Order word set::  
                   1702: @end menu
                   1703: 
                   1704: 
                   1705: @c =====================================================================
                   1706: @node The Core Words, The optional Block word set, ANS conformance, ANS conformance
                   1707: @comment  node-name,  next,  previous,  up
                   1708: @section The Core Words
                   1709: @c =====================================================================
                   1710: 
                   1711: @menu
1.15      anton    1712: * core-idef::                   Implementation Defined Options                   
                   1713: * core-ambcond::                Ambiguous Conditions                
                   1714: * core-other::                  Other System Documentation                  
1.14      anton    1715: @end menu
                   1716: 
                   1717: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
                   1718: @node core-idef, core-ambcond, The Core Words, The Core Words
                   1719: @subsection Implementation Defined Options
                   1720: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
                   1721: 
                   1722: @table @i
                   1723: 
                   1724: @item (Cell) aligned addresses:
1.17    ! anton    1725: processor-dependent. Gforth's alignment words perform natural alignment
1.14      anton    1726: (e.g., an address aligned for a datum of size 8 is divisible by
                   1727: 8). Unaligned accesses usually result in a @code{-23 THROW}.
                   1728: 
                   1729: @item @code{EMIT} and non-graphic characters:
                   1730: The character is output using the C library function (actually, macro)
                   1731: @code{putchar}.
                   1732: 
                   1733: @item character editing of @code{ACCEPT} and @code{EXPECT}:
                   1734: This is modeled on the GNU readline library (@pxref{Readline
                   1735: Interaction, , Command Line Editing, readline, The GNU Readline
                   1736: Library}) with Emacs-like key bindings. @kbd{Tab} deviates a little by
                   1737: producing a full word completion every time you type it (instead of
                   1738: producing the common prefix of all completions).
                   1739: 
                   1740: @item character set:
                   1741: The character set of your computer and display device. Gforth is
                   1742: 8-bit-clean (but some other component in your system may make trouble).
                   1743: 
                   1744: @item Character-aligned address requirements:
                   1745: installation-dependent. Currently a character is represented by a C
                   1746: @code{unsigned char}; in the future we might switch to @code{wchar_t}
                   1747: (Comments on that requested).
                   1748: 
                   1749: @item character-set extensions and matching of names:
1.17    ! anton    1750: Any character except the ASCII NUL charcter can be used in a
        !          1751: name. Matching is case-insensitive. The matching is performed using the
        !          1752: C function @code{strncasecmp}, whose function is probably influenced by
        !          1753: the locale. E.g., the @code{C} locale does not know about accents and
1.14      anton    1754: umlauts, so they are matched case-sensitively in that locale. For
                   1755: portability reasons it is best to write programs such that they work in
                   1756: the @code{C} locale. Then one can use libraries written by a Polish
                   1757: programmer (who might use words containing ISO Latin-2 encoded
                   1758: characters) and by a French programmer (ISO Latin-1) in the same program
                   1759: (of course, @code{WORDS} will produce funny results for some of the
                   1760: words (which ones, depends on the font you are using)). Also, the locale
                   1761: you prefer may not be available in other operating systems. Hopefully,
                   1762: Unicode will solve these problems one day.
                   1763: 
                   1764: @item conditions under which control characters match a space delimiter:
                   1765: If @code{WORD} is called with the space character as a delimiter, all
                   1766: white-space characters (as identified by the C macro @code{isspace()})
                   1767: are delimiters. @code{PARSE}, on the other hand, treats space like other
                   1768: delimiters. @code{PARSE-WORD} treats space like @code{WORD}, but behaves
                   1769: like @code{PARSE} otherwise. @code{(NAME)}, which is used by the outer
                   1770: interpreter (aka text interpreter) by default, treats all white-space
                   1771: characters as delimiters.
                   1772: 
                   1773: @item format of the control flow stack:
                   1774: The data stack is used as control flow stack. The size of a control flow
                   1775: stack item in cells is given by the constant @code{cs-item-size}. At the
                   1776: time of this writing, an item consists of a (pointer to a) locals list
                   1777: (third), an address in the code (second), and a tag for identifying the
                   1778: item (TOS). The following tags are used: @code{defstart},
                   1779: @code{live-orig}, @code{dead-orig}, @code{dest}, @code{do-dest},
                   1780: @code{scopestart}.
                   1781: 
                   1782: @item conversion of digits > 35
                   1783: The characters @code{[\]^_'} are the digits with the decimal value
                   1784: 36@minus{}41. There is no way to input many of the larger digits.
                   1785: 
                   1786: @item display after input terminates in @code{ACCEPT} and @code{EXPECT}:
                   1787: The cursor is moved to the end of the entered string. If the input is
                   1788: terminated using the @kbd{Return} key, a space is typed.
                   1789: 
                   1790: @item exception abort sequence of @code{ABORT"}:
                   1791: The error string is stored into the variable @code{"error} and a
                   1792: @code{-2 throw} is performed.
                   1793: 
                   1794: @item input line terminator:
                   1795: For interactive input, @kbd{C-m} and @kbd{C-j} terminate lines. One of
                   1796: these characters is typically produced when you type the @kbd{Enter} or
                   1797: @kbd{Return} key.
                   1798: 
                   1799: @item maximum size of a counted string:
                   1800: @code{s" /counted-string" environment? drop .}. Currently 255 characters
                   1801: on all ports, but this may change.
                   1802: 
                   1803: @item maximum size of a parsed string:
                   1804: Given by the constant @code{/line}. Currently 255 characters.
                   1805: 
                   1806: @item maximum size of a definition name, in characters:
                   1807: 31
                   1808: 
                   1809: @item maximum string length for @code{ENVIRONMENT?}, in characters:
                   1810: 31
                   1811: 
                   1812: @item method of selecting the user input device:
1.17    ! anton    1813: The user input device is the standard input. There is currently no way to
        !          1814: change it from within Gforth. However, the input can typically be
        !          1815: redirected in the command line that starts Gforth.
1.14      anton    1816: 
                   1817: @item method of selecting the user output device:
                   1818: The user output device is the standard output. It cannot be redirected
1.17    ! anton    1819: from within Gforth, but typically from the command line that starts
        !          1820: Gforth. Gforth uses buffered output, so output on a terminal does not
1.14      anton    1821: become visible before the next newline or buffer overflow. Output on
                   1822: non-terminals is invisible until the buffer overflows.
                   1823: 
                   1824: @item methods of dictionary compilation:
1.17    ! anton    1825: What are we expected to document here?
1.14      anton    1826: 
                   1827: @item number of bits in one address unit:
                   1828: @code{s" address-units-bits" environment? drop .}. 8 in all current
                   1829: ports.
                   1830: 
                   1831: @item number representation and arithmetic:
                   1832: Processor-dependent. Binary two's complement on all current ports.
                   1833: 
                   1834: @item ranges for integer types:
                   1835: Installation-dependent. Make environmental queries for @code{MAX-N},
                   1836: @code{MAX-U}, @code{MAX-D} and @code{MAX-UD}. The lower bounds for
                   1837: unsigned (and positive) types is 0. The lower bound for signed types on
                   1838: two's complement and one's complement machines machines can be computed
                   1839: by adding 1 to the upper bound.
                   1840: 
                   1841: @item read-only data space regions:
                   1842: The whole Forth data space is writable.
                   1843: 
                   1844: @item size of buffer at @code{WORD}:
                   1845: @code{PAD HERE - .}. 104 characters on 32-bit machines. The buffer is
                   1846: shared with the pictured numeric output string. If overwriting
                   1847: @code{PAD} is acceptable, it is as large as the remaining dictionary
                   1848: space, although only as much can be sensibly used as fits in a counted
                   1849: string.
                   1850: 
                   1851: @item size of one cell in address units:
                   1852: @code{1 cells .}.
                   1853: 
                   1854: @item size of one character in address units:
                   1855: @code{1 chars .}. 1 on all current ports.
                   1856: 
                   1857: @item size of the keyboard terminal buffer:
                   1858: Varies. You can determine the size at a specific time using @code{lp@
                   1859: tib - .}. It is shared with the locals stack and TIBs of files that
                   1860: include the current file. You can change the amount of space for TIBs
1.17    ! anton    1861: and locals stack at Gforth startup with the command line option
1.14      anton    1862: @code{-l}.
                   1863: 
                   1864: @item size of the pictured numeric output buffer:
                   1865: @code{PAD HERE - .}. 104 characters on 32-bit machines. The buffer is
                   1866: shared with @code{WORD}.
                   1867: 
                   1868: @item size of the scratch area returned by @code{PAD}:
                   1869: The remainder of dictionary space. You can even use the unused part of
                   1870: the data stack space. The current size can be computed with @code{sp@
                   1871: pad - .}.
                   1872: 
                   1873: @item system case-sensitivity characteristics:
                   1874: Dictionary searches are case insensitive. However, as explained above
                   1875: under @i{character-set extensions}, the matching for non-ASCII
                   1876: characters is determined by the locale you are using. In the default
                   1877: @code{C} locale all non-ASCII characters are matched case-sensitively.
                   1878: 
                   1879: @item system prompt:
                   1880: @code{ ok} in interpret state, @code{ compiled} in compile state.
                   1881: 
                   1882: @item division rounding:
                   1883: installation dependent. @code{s" floored" environment? drop .}. We leave
                   1884: the choice to gcc (what to use for @code{/}) and to you (whether to use
                   1885: @code{fm/mod}, @code{sm/rem} or simply @code{/}).
                   1886: 
                   1887: @item values of @code{STATE} when true:
                   1888: -1.
                   1889: 
                   1890: @item values returned after arithmetic overflow:
                   1891: On two's complement machines, arithmetic is performed modulo
                   1892: 2**bits-per-cell for single arithmetic and 4**bits-per-cell for double
                   1893: arithmetic (with appropriate mapping for signed types). Division by zero
                   1894: typically results in a @code{-55 throw} (floatingpoint unidentified
                   1895: fault), although a @code{-10 throw} (divide by zero) would be more
                   1896: appropriate.
                   1897: 
                   1898: @item whether the current definition can be found after @t{DOES>}:
                   1899: No.
                   1900: 
                   1901: @end table
                   1902: 
                   1903: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
                   1904: @node core-ambcond, core-other, core-idef, The Core Words
                   1905: @subsection Ambiguous conditions
                   1906: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
                   1907: 
                   1908: @table @i
                   1909: 
                   1910: @item a name is neither a word nor a number:
                   1911: @code{-13 throw} (Undefined word)
                   1912: 
                   1913: @item a definition name exceeds the maximum length allowed:
                   1914: @code{-19 throw} (Word name too long)
                   1915: 
                   1916: @item addressing a region not inside the various data spaces of the forth system:
                   1917: The stacks, code space and name space are accessible. Machine code space is
                   1918: typically readable. Accessing other addresses gives results dependent on
                   1919: the operating system. On decent systems: @code{-9 throw} (Invalid memory
                   1920: address).
                   1921: 
                   1922: @item argument type incompatible with parameter:
                   1923: This is usually not caught. Some words perform checks, e.g., the control
                   1924: flow words, and issue a @code{ABORT"} or @code{-12 THROW} (Argument type
                   1925: mismatch).
                   1926: 
                   1927: @item attempting to obtain the execution token of a word with undefined execution semantics:
                   1928: You get an execution token representing the compilation semantics
                   1929: instead.
                   1930: 
                   1931: @item dividing by zero:
                   1932: typically results in a @code{-55 throw} (floating point unidentified
                   1933: fault), although a @code{-10 throw} (divide by zero) would be more
                   1934: appropriate.
                   1935: 
                   1936: @item insufficient data stack or return stack space:
                   1937: Not checked. This typically results in mysterious illegal memory
                   1938: accesses, producing @code{-9 throw} (Invalid memory address) or
                   1939: @code{-23 throw} (Address alignment exception).
                   1940: 
                   1941: @item insufficient space for loop control parameters:
                   1942: like other return stack overflows.
                   1943: 
                   1944: @item insufficient space in the dictionary:
                   1945: Not checked. Similar results as stack overflows. However, typically the
                   1946: error appears at a different place when one inserts or removes code.
                   1947: 
                   1948: @item interpreting a word with undefined interpretation semantics:
                   1949: For some words, we defined interpretation semantics. For the others:
                   1950: @code{-14 throw} (Interpreting a compile-only word). Note that this is
                   1951: checked only by the outer (aka text) interpreter; if the word is
                   1952: @code{execute}d in some other way, it will typically perform it's
                   1953: compilation semantics even in interpret state. (We could change @code{'}
                   1954: and relatives not to give the xt of such words, but we think that would
                   1955: be too restrictive).
                   1956: 
                   1957: @item modifying the contents of the input buffer or a string literal:
                   1958: These are located in writable memory and can be modified.
                   1959: 
                   1960: @item overflow of the pictured numeric output string:
                   1961: Not checked.
                   1962: 
                   1963: @item parsed string overflow:
                   1964: @code{PARSE} cannot overflow. @code{WORD} does not check for overflow.
                   1965: 
                   1966: @item producing a result out of range:
                   1967: On two's complement machines, arithmetic is performed modulo
                   1968: 2**bits-per-cell for single arithmetic and 4**bits-per-cell for double
                   1969: arithmetic (with appropriate mapping for signed types). Division by zero
                   1970: typically results in a @code{-55 throw} (floatingpoint unidentified
                   1971: fault), although a @code{-10 throw} (divide by zero) would be more
                   1972: appropriate. @code{convert} and @code{>number} currently overflow
                   1973: silently.
                   1974: 
                   1975: @item reading from an empty data or return stack:
                   1976: The data stack is checked by the outer (aka text) interpreter after
                   1977: every word executed. If it has underflowed, a @code{-4 throw} (Stack
                   1978: underflow) is performed. Apart from that, the stacks are not checked and
                   1979: underflows can result in similar behaviour as overflows (of adjacent
                   1980: stacks).
                   1981: 
                   1982: @item unexepected end of the input buffer, resulting in an attempt to use a zero-length string as a name:
                   1983: @code{Create} and its descendants perform a @code{-16 throw} (Attempt to
                   1984: use zero-length string as a name). Words like @code{'} probably will not
                   1985: find what they search. Note that it is possible to create zero-length
                   1986: names with @code{nextname} (should it not?).
                   1987: 
                   1988: @item @code{>IN} greater than input buffer:
                   1989: The next invocation of a parsing word returns a string wih length 0.
                   1990: 
                   1991: @item @code{RECURSE} appears after @code{DOES>}:
                   1992: Compiles a recursive call to the defining word not to the defined word.
                   1993: 
                   1994: @item argument input source different than current input source for @code{RESTORE-INPUT}:
                   1995: !!???If the argument input source is a valid input source then it gets
                   1996: restored. Otherwise causes @code{-12 THROW} which unless caught issues
                   1997: the message "argument type mismatch" and aborts.
                   1998: 
                   1999: @item data space containing definitions gets de-allocated:
                   2000: Deallocation with @code{allot} is not checked. This typically resuls in
                   2001: memory access faults or execution of illegal instructions.
                   2002: 
                   2003: @item data space read/write with incorrect alignment:
                   2004: Processor-dependent. Typically results in a @code{-23 throw} (Address
                   2005: alignment exception). Under Linux on a 486 or later processor with
                   2006: alignment turned on, incorrect alignment results in a @code{-9 throw}
                   2007: (Invalid memory address). There are reportedly some processors with
                   2008: alignment restrictions that do not report them.
                   2009: 
                   2010: @item data space pointer not properly aligned, @code{,}, @code{C,}:
                   2011: Like other alignment errors.
                   2012: 
                   2013: @item less than u+2 stack items (@code{PICK} and @code{ROLL}):
                   2014: Not checked. May cause an illegal memory access.
                   2015: 
                   2016: @item loop control parameters not available:
                   2017: Not checked. The counted loop words simply assume that the top of return
                   2018: stack items are loop control parameters and behave accordingly.
                   2019: 
                   2020: @item most recent definition does not have a name (@code{IMMEDIATE}):
                   2021: @code{abort" last word was headerless"}.
                   2022: 
                   2023: @item name not defined by @code{VALUE} used by @code{TO}:
                   2024: @code{-32 throw} (Invalid name argument)
                   2025: 
1.15      anton    2026: @item name not found (@code{'}, @code{POSTPONE}, @code{[']}, @code{[COMPILE]}):
1.14      anton    2027: @code{-13 throw} (Undefined word)
                   2028: 
                   2029: @item parameters are not of the same type (@code{DO}, @code{?DO}, @code{WITHIN}):
                   2030: Gforth behaves as if they were of the same type. I.e., you can predict
                   2031: the behaviour by interpreting all parameters as, e.g., signed.
                   2032: 
                   2033: @item @code{POSTPONE} or @code{[COMPILE]} applied to @code{TO}:
                   2034: Assume @code{: X POSTPONE TO ; IMMEDIATE}. @code{X} is equivalent to
                   2035: @code{TO}.
                   2036: 
                   2037: @item String longer than a counted string returned by @code{WORD}:
                   2038: Not checked. The string will be ok, but the count will, of course,
                   2039: contain only the least significant bits of the length.
                   2040: 
1.15      anton    2041: @item u greater than or equal to the number of bits in a cell (@code{LSHIFT}, @code{RSHIFT}):
1.14      anton    2042: Processor-dependent. Typical behaviours are returning 0 and using only
                   2043: the low bits of the shift count.
                   2044: 
                   2045: @item word not defined via @code{CREATE}:
                   2046: @code{>BODY} produces the PFA of the word no matter how it was defined.
                   2047: 
                   2048: @code{DOES>} changes the execution semantics of the last defined word no
                   2049: matter how it was defined. E.g., @code{CONSTANT DOES>} is equivalent to
                   2050: @code{CREATE , DOES>}.
                   2051: 
                   2052: @item words improperly used outside @code{<#} and @code{#>}:
                   2053: Not checked. As usual, you can expect memory faults.
                   2054: 
                   2055: @end table
                   2056: 
                   2057: 
                   2058: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
                   2059: @node core-other,  , core-ambcond, The Core Words
                   2060: @subsection Other system documentation
                   2061: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
                   2062: 
                   2063: @table @i
                   2064: 
                   2065: @item nonstandard words using @code{PAD}:
                   2066: None.
                   2067: 
                   2068: @item operator's terminal facilities available:
                   2069: !!??
                   2070: 
                   2071: @item program data space available:
                   2072: @code{sp@ here - .} gives the space remaining for dictionary and data
                   2073: stack together.
                   2074: 
                   2075: @item return stack space available:
                   2076: !!??
                   2077: 
                   2078: @item stack space available:
                   2079: @code{sp@ here - .} gives the space remaining for dictionary and data
                   2080: stack together.
                   2081: 
                   2082: @item system dictionary space required, in address units:
                   2083: Type @code{here forthstart - .} after startup. At the time of this
                   2084: writing, this gives 70108 (bytes) on a 32-bit system.
                   2085: @end table
                   2086: 
                   2087: 
                   2088: @c =====================================================================
                   2089: @node The optional Block word set, The optional Double Number word set, The Core Words, ANS conformance
                   2090: @section The optional Block word set
                   2091: @c =====================================================================
                   2092: 
                   2093: @menu
1.15      anton    2094: * block-idef::                  Implementation Defined Options                  
                   2095: * block-ambcond::               Ambiguous Conditions               
                   2096: * block-other::                 Other System Documentation                 
1.14      anton    2097: @end menu
                   2098: 
                   2099: 
                   2100: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
                   2101: @node block-idef, block-ambcond, The optional Block word set, The optional Block word set
                   2102: @subsection Implementation Defined Options
                   2103: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
                   2104: 
                   2105: @table @i
                   2106: 
                   2107: @item the format for display by @code{LIST}:
                   2108: First the screen number is displayed, then 16 lines of 64 characters,
                   2109: each line preceded by the line number.
                   2110: 
                   2111: @item the length of a line affected by @code{\}:
                   2112: 64 characters.
                   2113: @end table
                   2114: 
                   2115: 
                   2116: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
                   2117: @node block-ambcond, block-other, block-idef, The optional Block word set
                   2118: @subsection Ambiguous conditions
                   2119: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
                   2120: 
                   2121: @table @i
                   2122: 
                   2123: @item correct block read was not possible:
                   2124: Typically results in a @code{throw} of some OS-derived value (between
                   2125: -512 and -2048). If the blocks file was just not long enough, blanks are
                   2126: supplied for the missing portion.
                   2127: 
                   2128: @item I/O exception in block transfer:
                   2129: Typically results in a @code{throw} of some OS-derived value (between
                   2130: -512 and -2048).
                   2131: 
                   2132: @item invalid block number:
                   2133: @code{-35 throw} (Invalid block number)
                   2134: 
                   2135: @item a program directly alters the contents of @code{BLK}:
                   2136: The input stream is switched to that other block, at the same
                   2137: position. If the storing to @code{BLK} happens when interpreting
                   2138: non-block input, the system will get quite confused when the block ends.
                   2139: 
                   2140: @item no current block buffer for @code{UPDATE}:
                   2141: @code{UPDATE} has no effect.
                   2142: 
                   2143: @end table
                   2144: 
                   2145: 
                   2146: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
                   2147: @node block-other,  , block-ambcond, The optional Block word set
                   2148: @subsection Other system documentation
                   2149: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
                   2150: 
                   2151: @table @i
                   2152: 
                   2153: @item any restrictions a multiprogramming system places on the use of buffer addresses:
                   2154: No restrictions (yet).
                   2155: 
                   2156: @item the number of blocks available for source and data:
                   2157: depends on your disk space.
                   2158: 
                   2159: @end table
                   2160: 
                   2161: 
                   2162: @c =====================================================================
                   2163: @node The optional Double Number word set, The optional Exception word set, The optional Block word set, ANS conformance
                   2164: @section The optional Double Number word set
                   2165: @c =====================================================================
                   2166: 
                   2167: @menu
1.15      anton    2168: * double-ambcond::              Ambiguous Conditions              
1.14      anton    2169: @end menu
                   2170: 
                   2171: 
                   2172: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
1.15      anton    2173: @node double-ambcond,  , The optional Double Number word set, The optional Double Number word set
1.14      anton    2174: @subsection Ambiguous conditions
                   2175: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
                   2176: 
                   2177: @table @i
                   2178: 
1.15      anton    2179: @item @var{d} outside of range of @var{n} in @code{D>S}:
1.14      anton    2180: The least significant cell of @var{d} is produced.
                   2181: 
                   2182: @end table
                   2183: 
                   2184: 
                   2185: @c =====================================================================
                   2186: @node The optional Exception word set, The optional Facility word set, The optional Double Number word set, ANS conformance
                   2187: @section The optional Exception word set
                   2188: @c =====================================================================
                   2189: 
                   2190: @menu
1.15      anton    2191: * exception-idef::              Implementation Defined Options              
1.14      anton    2192: @end menu
                   2193: 
                   2194: 
                   2195: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
1.15      anton    2196: @node exception-idef,  , The optional Exception word set, The optional Exception word set
1.14      anton    2197: @subsection Implementation Defined Options
                   2198: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
                   2199: 
                   2200: @table @i
                   2201: @item @code{THROW}-codes used in the system:
                   2202: The codes -256@minus{}-511 are used for reporting signals (see
                   2203: @file{errore.fs}). The codes -512@minus{}-2047 are used for OS errors
                   2204: (for file and memory allocation operations). The mapping from OS error
                   2205: numbers to throw code is -512@minus{}@var{errno}. One side effect of
                   2206: this mapping is that undefined OS errors produce a message with a
                   2207: strange number; e.g., @code{-1000 THROW} results in @code{Unknown error
                   2208: 488} on my system.
                   2209: @end table
                   2210: 
                   2211: @c =====================================================================
                   2212: @node The optional Facility word set, The optional File-Access word set, The optional Exception word set, ANS conformance
                   2213: @section The optional Facility word set
                   2214: @c =====================================================================
                   2215: 
                   2216: @menu
1.15      anton    2217: * facility-idef::               Implementation Defined Options               
                   2218: * facility-ambcond::            Ambiguous Conditions            
1.14      anton    2219: @end menu
                   2220: 
                   2221: 
                   2222: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
                   2223: @node facility-idef, facility-ambcond, The optional Facility word set, The optional Facility word set
                   2224: @subsection Implementation Defined Options
                   2225: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
                   2226: 
                   2227: @table @i
                   2228: 
                   2229: @item encoding of keyboard events (@code{EKEY}):
                   2230: Not yet implemeted.
                   2231: 
                   2232: @item duration of a system clock tick
                   2233: System dependent. With respect to @code{MS}, the time is specified in
                   2234: microseconds. How well the OS and the hardware implement this, is
                   2235: another question.
                   2236: 
                   2237: @item repeatability to be expected from the execution of @code{MS}:
                   2238: System dependent. On Unix, a lot depends on load. If the system is
1.17    ! anton    2239: lightly loaded, and the delay is short enough that Gforth does not get
1.14      anton    2240: swapped out, the performance should be acceptable. Under MS-DOS and
                   2241: other single-tasking systems, it should be good.
                   2242: 
                   2243: @end table
                   2244: 
                   2245: 
                   2246: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
1.15      anton    2247: @node facility-ambcond,  , facility-idef, The optional Facility word set
1.14      anton    2248: @subsection Ambiguous conditions
                   2249: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
                   2250: 
                   2251: @table @i
                   2252: 
                   2253: @item @code{AT-XY} can't be performed on user output device:
                   2254: Largely terminal dependant. No range checks are done on the arguments.
                   2255: No errors are reported. You may see some garbage appearing, you may see
                   2256: simply nothing happen.
                   2257: 
                   2258: @end table
                   2259: 
                   2260: 
                   2261: @c =====================================================================
                   2262: @node The optional File-Access word set, The optional Floating-Point word set, The optional Facility word set, ANS conformance
                   2263: @section The optional File-Access word set
                   2264: @c =====================================================================
                   2265: 
                   2266: @menu
1.15      anton    2267: * file-idef::                   Implementation Defined Options                   
                   2268: * file-ambcond::                Ambiguous Conditions                
1.14      anton    2269: @end menu
                   2270: 
                   2271: 
                   2272: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
                   2273: @node file-idef, file-ambcond, The optional File-Access word set, The optional File-Access word set
                   2274: @subsection Implementation Defined Options
                   2275: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
                   2276: 
                   2277: @table @i
                   2278: 
                   2279: @item File access methods used:
                   2280: @code{R/O}, @code{R/W} and @code{BIN} work as you would
                   2281: expect. @code{W/O} translates into the C file opening mode @code{w} (or
                   2282: @code{wb}): The file is cleared, if it exists, and created, if it does
1.15      anton    2283: not (both with @code{open-file} and @code{create-file}).  Under Unix
1.14      anton    2284: @code{create-file} creates a file with 666 permissions modified by your
                   2285: umask.
                   2286: 
                   2287: @item file exceptions:
                   2288: The file words do not raise exceptions (except, perhaps, memory access
                   2289: faults when you pass illegal addresses or file-ids).
                   2290: 
                   2291: @item file line terminator:
                   2292: System-dependent. Gforth uses C's newline character as line
                   2293: terminator. What the actual character code(s) of this are is
                   2294: system-dependent.
                   2295: 
                   2296: @item file name format
                   2297: System dependent. Gforth just uses the file name format of your OS.
                   2298: 
                   2299: @item information returned by @code{FILE-STATUS}:
                   2300: @code{FILE-STATUS} returns the most powerful file access mode allowed
                   2301: for the file: Either @code{R/O}, @code{W/O} or @code{R/W}. If the file
                   2302: cannot be accessed, @code{R/O BIN} is returned. @code{BIN} is applicable
                   2303: along with the retured mode.
                   2304: 
                   2305: @item input file state after an exception when including source:
                   2306: All files that are left via the exception are closed.
                   2307: 
                   2308: @item @var{ior} values and meaning:
1.15      anton    2309: The @var{ior}s returned by the file and memory allocation words are
                   2310: intended as throw codes. They typically are in the range
                   2311: -512@minus{}-2047 of OS errors.  The mapping from OS error numbers to
                   2312: @var{ior}s is -512@minus{}@var{errno}.
1.14      anton    2313: 
                   2314: @item maximum depth of file input nesting:
                   2315: limited by the amount of return stack, locals/TIB stack, and the number
                   2316: of open files available. This should not give you troubles.
                   2317: 
                   2318: @item maximum size of input line:
                   2319: @code{/line}. Currently 255.
                   2320: 
                   2321: @item methods of mapping block ranges to files:
                   2322: Currently, the block words automatically access the file
                   2323: @file{blocks.fb} in the currend working directory. More sophisticated
                   2324: methods could be implemented if there is demand (and a volunteer).
                   2325: 
                   2326: @item number of string buffers provided by @code{S"}:
                   2327: 1
                   2328: 
                   2329: @item size of string buffer used by @code{S"}:
                   2330: @code{/line}. currently 255.
                   2331: 
                   2332: @end table
                   2333: 
                   2334: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
1.15      anton    2335: @node file-ambcond,  , file-idef, The optional File-Access word set
1.14      anton    2336: @subsection Ambiguous conditions
                   2337: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
                   2338: 
                   2339: @table @i
                   2340: 
                   2341: @item attempting to position a file outside it's boundaries:
                   2342: @code{REPOSITION-FILE} is performed as usual: Afterwards,
                   2343: @code{FILE-POSITION} returns the value given to @code{REPOSITION-FILE}.
                   2344: 
                   2345: @item attempting to read from file positions not yet written:
                   2346: End-of-file, i.e., zero characters are read and no error is reported.
                   2347: 
                   2348: @item @var{file-id} is invalid (@code{INCLUDE-FILE}):
                   2349: An appropriate exception may be thrown, but a memory fault or other
                   2350: problem is more probable.
                   2351: 
                   2352: @item I/O exception reading or closing @var{file-id} (@code{include-file}, @code{included}):
                   2353: The @var{ior} produced by the operation, that discovered the problem, is
                   2354: thrown.
                   2355: 
                   2356: @item named file cannot be opened (@code{included}):
                   2357: The @var{ior} produced by @code{open-file} is thrown.
                   2358: 
                   2359: @item requesting an unmapped block number:
                   2360: There are no unmapped legal block numbers. On some operating systems,
                   2361: writing a block with a large number may overflow the file system and
                   2362: have an error message as consequence.
                   2363: 
                   2364: @item using @code{source-id} when @code{blk} is non-zero:
                   2365: @code{source-id} performs its function. Typically it will give the id of
                   2366: the source which loaded the block. (Better ideas?)
                   2367: 
                   2368: @end table
                   2369: 
                   2370: 
                   2371: @c =====================================================================
                   2372: @node  The optional Floating-Point word set, The optional Locals word set, The optional File-Access word set, ANS conformance
1.15      anton    2373: @section The optional Floating-Point word set
1.14      anton    2374: @c =====================================================================
                   2375: 
                   2376: @menu
1.15      anton    2377: * floating-idef::               Implementation Defined Options
                   2378: * floating-ambcond::            Ambiguous Conditions            
1.14      anton    2379: @end menu
                   2380: 
                   2381: 
                   2382: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
                   2383: @node floating-idef, floating-ambcond, The optional Floating-Point word set, The optional Floating-Point word set
                   2384: @subsection Implementation Defined Options
                   2385: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
                   2386: 
                   2387: @table @i
                   2388: 
1.15      anton    2389: @item format and range of floating point numbers:
                   2390: System-dependent; the @code{double} type of C.
1.14      anton    2391: 
1.15      anton    2392: @item results of @code{REPRESENT} when @var{float} is out of range:
                   2393: System dependent; @code{REPRESENT} is implemented using the C library
                   2394: function @code{ecvt()} and inherits its behaviour in this respect.
1.14      anton    2395: 
1.15      anton    2396: @item rounding or truncation of floating-point numbers:
                   2397: What's the question?!!
1.14      anton    2398: 
1.15      anton    2399: @item size of floating-point stack:
                   2400: @code{s" FLOATING-STACK" environment? drop .}. Can be changed at startup
                   2401: with the command-line option @code{-f}.
1.14      anton    2402: 
1.15      anton    2403: @item width of floating-point stack:
                   2404: @code{1 floats}.
1.14      anton    2405: 
                   2406: @end table
                   2407: 
                   2408: 
                   2409: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
1.15      anton    2410: @node floating-ambcond,  , floating-idef, The optional Floating-Point word set
                   2411: @subsection Ambiguous conditions
1.14      anton    2412: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
                   2413: 
                   2414: @table @i
                   2415: 
1.15      anton    2416: @item @code{df@@} or @code{df!} used with an address that is not double-float  aligned:
                   2417: System-dependent. Typically results in an alignment fault like other
                   2418: alignment violations.
1.14      anton    2419: 
1.15      anton    2420: @item @code{f@@} or @code{f!} used with an address that is not float  aligned:
                   2421: System-dependent. Typically results in an alignment fault like other
                   2422: alignment violations.
1.14      anton    2423: 
1.15      anton    2424: @item Floating-point result out of range:
                   2425: System-dependent. Can result in a @code{-55 THROW} (Floating-point
                   2426: unidentified fault), or can produce a special value representing, e.g.,
                   2427: Infinity.
1.14      anton    2428: 
1.15      anton    2429: @item @code{sf@@} or @code{sf!} used with an address that is not single-float  aligned:
                   2430: System-dependent. Typically results in an alignment fault like other
                   2431: alignment violations.
1.14      anton    2432: 
1.15      anton    2433: @item BASE is not decimal (@code{REPRESENT}, @code{F.}, @code{FE.}, @code{FS.}):
                   2434: The floating-point number is converted into decimal nonetheless.
1.14      anton    2435: 
1.15      anton    2436: @item Both arguments are equal to zero (@code{FATAN2}):
                   2437: System-dependent. @code{FATAN2} is implemented using the C library
                   2438: function @code{atan2()}.
1.14      anton    2439: 
1.15      anton    2440: @item Using ftan on an argument @var{r1} where cos(@var{r1}) is zero:
                   2441: System-dependent. Anyway, typically the cos of @var{r1} will not be zero
                   2442: because of small errors and the tan will be a very large (or very small)
                   2443: but finite number.
1.14      anton    2444: 
1.15      anton    2445: @item @var{d} cannot be presented precisely as a float in @code{D>F}:
                   2446: The result is rounded to the nearest float.
1.14      anton    2447: 
1.15      anton    2448: @item dividing by zero:
                   2449: @code{-55 throw} (Floating-point unidentified fault)
1.14      anton    2450: 
1.15      anton    2451: @item exponent too big for conversion (@code{DF!}, @code{DF@@}, @code{SF!}, @code{SF@@}):
                   2452: System dependent. On IEEE-FP based systems the number is converted into
                   2453: an infinity.
1.14      anton    2454: 
1.15      anton    2455: @item @var{float}<1 (@code{facosh}):
                   2456: @code{-55 throw} (Floating-point unidentified fault)
1.14      anton    2457: 
1.15      anton    2458: @item @var{float}=<-1 (@code{flnp1}):
                   2459: @code{-55 throw} (Floating-point unidentified fault). On IEEE-FP systems
                   2460: negative infinity is typically produced for @var{float}=-1.
1.14      anton    2461: 
1.15      anton    2462: @item @var{float}=<0 (@code{fln}, @code{flog}):
                   2463: @code{-55 throw} (Floating-point unidentified fault). On IEEE-FP systems
                   2464: negative infinity is typically produced for @var{float}=0.
1.14      anton    2465: 
1.15      anton    2466: @item @var{float}<0 (@code{fasinh}, @code{fsqrt}):
                   2467: @code{-55 throw} (Floating-point unidentified fault). @code{fasinh}
                   2468: produces values for these inputs on my Linux box (Bug in the C library?)
1.14      anton    2469: 
1.15      anton    2470: @item |@var{float}|>1 (@code{facos}, @code{fasin}, @code{fatanh}):
                   2471: @code{-55 throw} (Floating-point unidentified fault).
1.14      anton    2472: 
1.15      anton    2473: @item integer part of float cannot be represented by @var{d} in @code{f>d}:
                   2474: @code{-55 throw} (Floating-point unidentified fault).
1.14      anton    2475: 
1.15      anton    2476: @item string larger than pictured numeric output area (@code{f.}, @code{fe.}, @code{fs.}):
                   2477: This does not happen.
                   2478: @end table
1.14      anton    2479: 
                   2480: 
                   2481: 
                   2482: @c =====================================================================
1.15      anton    2483: @node  The optional Locals word set, The optional Memory-Allocation word set, The optional Floating-Point word set, ANS conformance
                   2484: @section The optional Locals word set
1.14      anton    2485: @c =====================================================================
                   2486: 
                   2487: @menu
1.15      anton    2488: * locals-idef::                 Implementation Defined Options                 
                   2489: * locals-ambcond::              Ambiguous Conditions              
1.14      anton    2490: @end menu
                   2491: 
                   2492: 
                   2493: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
1.15      anton    2494: @node locals-idef, locals-ambcond, The optional Locals word set, The optional Locals word set
1.14      anton    2495: @subsection Implementation Defined Options
                   2496: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
                   2497: 
                   2498: @table @i
                   2499: 
1.15      anton    2500: @item maximum number of locals in a definition:
                   2501: @code{s" #locals" environment? drop .}. Currently 15. This is a lower
                   2502: bound, e.g., on a 32-bit machine there can be 41 locals of up to 8
                   2503: characters. The number of locals in a definition is bounded by the size
                   2504: of locals-buffer, which contains the names of the locals.
1.14      anton    2505: 
                   2506: @end table
                   2507: 
                   2508: 
                   2509: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
1.15      anton    2510: @node locals-ambcond,  , locals-idef, The optional Locals word set
1.14      anton    2511: @subsection Ambiguous conditions
                   2512: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
                   2513: 
                   2514: @table @i
                   2515: 
1.15      anton    2516: @item executing a named local in interpretation state:
                   2517: @code{-14 throw} (Interpreting a compile-only word).
1.14      anton    2518: 
1.15      anton    2519: @item @var{name} not defined by @code{VALUE} or @code{(LOCAL)} (@code{TO}):
                   2520: @code{-32 throw} (Invalid name argument)
1.14      anton    2521: 
                   2522: @end table
                   2523: 
                   2524: 
                   2525: @c =====================================================================
1.15      anton    2526: @node  The optional Memory-Allocation word set, The optional Programming-Tools word set, The optional Locals word set, ANS conformance
                   2527: @section The optional Memory-Allocation word set
1.14      anton    2528: @c =====================================================================
                   2529: 
                   2530: @menu
1.15      anton    2531: * memory-idef::                 Implementation Defined Options                 
1.14      anton    2532: @end menu
                   2533: 
                   2534: 
                   2535: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
1.15      anton    2536: @node memory-idef,  , The optional Memory-Allocation word set, The optional Memory-Allocation word set
1.14      anton    2537: @subsection Implementation Defined Options
                   2538: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
                   2539: 
                   2540: @table @i
                   2541: 
1.15      anton    2542: @item values and meaning of @var{ior}:
                   2543: The @var{ior}s returned by the file and memory allocation words are
                   2544: intended as throw codes. They typically are in the range
                   2545: -512@minus{}-2047 of OS errors.  The mapping from OS error numbers to
                   2546: @var{ior}s is -512@minus{}@var{errno}.
1.14      anton    2547: 
                   2548: @end table
                   2549: 
                   2550: @c =====================================================================
1.15      anton    2551: @node  The optional Programming-Tools word set, The optional Search-Order word set, The optional Memory-Allocation word set, ANS conformance
                   2552: @section The optional Programming-Tools word set
1.14      anton    2553: @c =====================================================================
                   2554: 
                   2555: @menu
1.15      anton    2556: * programming-idef::            Implementation Defined Options            
                   2557: * programming-ambcond::         Ambiguous Conditions         
1.14      anton    2558: @end menu
                   2559: 
                   2560: 
                   2561: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
1.15      anton    2562: @node programming-idef, programming-ambcond, The optional Programming-Tools word set, The optional Programming-Tools word set
1.14      anton    2563: @subsection Implementation Defined Options
                   2564: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
                   2565: 
                   2566: @table @i
                   2567: 
1.15      anton    2568: @item ending sequence for input following @code{;code} and @code{code}:
                   2569: Not implemented (yet).
1.14      anton    2570: 
1.15      anton    2571: @item manner of processing input following @code{;code} and @code{code}:
                   2572: Not implemented (yet).
                   2573: 
                   2574: @item search order capability for @code{EDITOR} and @code{ASSEMBLER}:
                   2575: Not implemented (yet). If they were implemented, they would use the
                   2576: search order wordset.
                   2577: 
                   2578: @item source and format of display by @code{SEE}:
                   2579: The source for @code{see} is the intermediate code used by the inner
                   2580: interpreter.  The current @code{see} tries to output Forth source code
                   2581: as well as possible.
                   2582: 
1.14      anton    2583: @end table
                   2584: 
                   2585: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
1.15      anton    2586: @node programming-ambcond,  , programming-idef, The optional Programming-Tools word set
1.14      anton    2587: @subsection Ambiguous conditions
                   2588: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
                   2589: 
                   2590: @table @i
                   2591: 
1.15      anton    2592: @item deleting the compilation wordlist (@code{FORGET}):
                   2593: Not implemented (yet).
1.14      anton    2594: 
1.15      anton    2595: @item fewer than @var{u}+1 items on the control flow stack (@code{CS-PICK}, @code{CS-ROLL}):
                   2596: This typically results in an @code{abort"} with a descriptive error
                   2597: message (may change into a @code{-22 throw} (Control structure mismatch)
                   2598: in the future). You may also get a memory access error. If you are
                   2599: unlucky, this ambiguous condition is not caught.
                   2600: 
                   2601: @item @var{name} can't be found (@code{forget}):
                   2602: Not implemented (yet).
1.14      anton    2603: 
1.15      anton    2604: @item @var{name} not defined via @code{CREATE}:
                   2605: @code{;code} is not implemented (yet). If it were, it would behave like
                   2606: @code{DOES>} in this respect, i.e., change the execution semantics of
                   2607: the last defined word no matter how it was defined.
1.14      anton    2608: 
1.15      anton    2609: @item @code{POSTPONE} applied to @code{[IF]}:
                   2610: After defining @code{: X POSTPONE [IF] ; IMMEDIATE}. @code{X} is
                   2611: equivalent to @code{[IF]}.
1.14      anton    2612: 
1.15      anton    2613: @item reaching the end of the input source before matching @code{[ELSE]} or @code{[THEN]}:
                   2614: Continue in the same state of conditional compilation in the next outer
                   2615: input source. Currently there is no warning to the user about this.
1.14      anton    2616: 
1.15      anton    2617: @item removing a needed definition (@code{FORGET}):
                   2618: Not implemented (yet).
1.14      anton    2619: 
                   2620: @end table
                   2621: 
                   2622: 
                   2623: @c =====================================================================
1.15      anton    2624: @node  The optional Search-Order word set,  , The optional Programming-Tools word set, ANS conformance
                   2625: @section The optional Search-Order word set
1.14      anton    2626: @c =====================================================================
                   2627: 
                   2628: @menu
1.15      anton    2629: * search-idef::                 Implementation Defined Options                 
                   2630: * search-ambcond::              Ambiguous Conditions              
1.14      anton    2631: @end menu
                   2632: 
                   2633: 
                   2634: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
1.15      anton    2635: @node search-idef, search-ambcond, The optional Search-Order word set, The optional Search-Order word set
1.14      anton    2636: @subsection Implementation Defined Options
                   2637: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
                   2638: 
                   2639: @table @i
                   2640: 
1.15      anton    2641: @item maximum number of word lists in search order:
                   2642: @code{s" wordlists" environment? drop .}. Currently 16.
                   2643: 
                   2644: @item minimum search order:
                   2645: @code{root root}.
1.14      anton    2646: 
                   2647: @end table
                   2648: 
                   2649: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
1.15      anton    2650: @node search-ambcond,  , search-idef, The optional Search-Order word set
1.14      anton    2651: @subsection Ambiguous conditions
                   2652: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
                   2653: 
                   2654: @table @i
                   2655: 
1.15      anton    2656: @item changing the compilation wordlist (during compilation):
                   2657: The definition is put into the wordlist that is the compilation wordlist
                   2658: when @code{REVEAL} is executed (by @code{;}, @code{DOES>},
                   2659: @code{RECURSIVE}, etc.).
1.14      anton    2660: 
1.15      anton    2661: @item search order empty (@code{previous}):
                   2662: @code{abort" Vocstack empty"}.
1.14      anton    2663: 
1.15      anton    2664: @item too many word lists in search order (@code{also}):
                   2665: @code{abort" Vocstack full"}.
1.14      anton    2666: 
                   2667: @end table
1.13      anton    2668: 
                   2669: 
1.17    ! anton    2670: @node Model, Emacs and Gforth, ANS conformance, Top
1.4       anton    2671: @chapter Model
                   2672: 
1.17    ! anton    2673: @node Emacs and Gforth, Internals, Model, Top
        !          2674: @chapter Emacs and Gforth
1.4       anton    2675: 
1.17    ! anton    2676: Gforth comes with @file{gforth.el}, an improved version of
1.4       anton    2677: @file{forth.el} by Goran Rydqvist (icluded in the TILE package). The
                   2678: improvements are a better (but still not perfect) handling of
                   2679: indentation. I have also added comment paragraph filling (@kbd{M-q}),
1.8       anton    2680: commenting (@kbd{C-x \}) and uncommenting (@kbd{C-u C-x \}) regions and
                   2681: removing debugging tracers (@kbd{C-x ~}, @pxref{Debugging}). I left the
                   2682: stuff I do not use alone, even though some of it only makes sense for
                   2683: TILE. To get a description of these features, enter Forth mode and type
                   2684: @kbd{C-h m}.
1.4       anton    2685: 
1.17    ! anton    2686: In addition, Gforth supports Emacs quite well: The source code locations
1.4       anton    2687: given in error messages, debugging output (from @code{~~}) and failed
                   2688: assertion messages are in the right format for Emacs' compilation mode
                   2689: (@pxref{Compilation, , Running Compilations under Emacs, emacs, Emacs
                   2690: Manual}) so the source location corresponding to an error or other
                   2691: message is only a few keystrokes away (@kbd{C-x `} for the next error,
                   2692: @kbd{C-c C-c} for the error under the cursor).
                   2693: 
                   2694: Also, if you @code{include} @file{etags.fs}, a new @file{TAGS} file
                   2695: (@pxref{Tags, , Tags Tables, emacs, Emacs Manual}) will be produced that
                   2696: contains the definitions of all words defined afterwards. You can then
                   2697: find the source for a word using @kbd{M-.}. Note that emacs can use
1.17    ! anton    2698: several tags files at the same time (e.g., one for the Gforth sources
1.4       anton    2699: and one for your program).
                   2700: 
                   2701: To get all these benefits, add the following lines to your @file{.emacs}
                   2702: file:
                   2703: 
                   2704: @example
                   2705: (autoload 'forth-mode "gforth.el")
                   2706: (setq auto-mode-alist (cons '("\\.fs\\'" . forth-mode) auto-mode-alist))
                   2707: @end example
                   2708: 
1.17    ! anton    2709: @node Internals, Bugs, Emacs and Gforth, Top
1.3       anton    2710: @chapter Internals
                   2711: 
1.17    ! anton    2712: Reading this section is not necessary for programming with Gforth. It
        !          2713: should be helpful for finding your way in the Gforth sources.
1.3       anton    2714: 
1.4       anton    2715: @menu
                   2716: * Portability::                 
                   2717: * Threading::                   
                   2718: * Primitives::                  
                   2719: * System Architecture::         
1.17    ! anton    2720: * Performance::                 
1.4       anton    2721: @end menu
                   2722: 
                   2723: @node Portability, Threading, Internals, Internals
1.3       anton    2724: @section Portability
                   2725: 
                   2726: One of the main goals of the effort is availability across a wide range
                   2727: of personal machines. fig-Forth, and, to a lesser extent, F83, achieved
                   2728: this goal by manually coding the engine in assembly language for several
                   2729: then-popular processors. This approach is very labor-intensive and the
                   2730: results are short-lived due to progress in computer architecture.
                   2731: 
                   2732: Others have avoided this problem by coding in C, e.g., Mitch Bradley
                   2733: (cforth), Mikael Patel (TILE) and Dirk Zoller (pfe). This approach is
                   2734: particularly popular for UNIX-based Forths due to the large variety of
                   2735: architectures of UNIX machines. Unfortunately an implementation in C
                   2736: does not mix well with the goals of efficiency and with using
                   2737: traditional techniques: Indirect or direct threading cannot be expressed
                   2738: in C, and switch threading, the fastest technique available in C, is
                   2739: significantly slower. Another problem with C is that it's very
                   2740: cumbersome to express double integer arithmetic.
                   2741: 
                   2742: Fortunately, there is a portable language that does not have these
                   2743: limitations: GNU C, the version of C processed by the GNU C compiler
                   2744: (@pxref{C Extensions, , Extensions to the C Language Family, gcc.info,
                   2745: GNU C Manual}). Its labels as values feature (@pxref{Labels as Values, ,
                   2746: Labels as Values, gcc.info, GNU C Manual}) makes direct and indirect
                   2747: threading possible, its @code{long long} type (@pxref{Long Long, ,
                   2748: Double-Word Integers, gcc.info, GNU C Manual}) corresponds to Forths
                   2749: double numbers. GNU C is available for free on all important (and many
                   2750: unimportant) UNIX machines, VMS, 80386s running MS-DOS, the Amiga, and
                   2751: the Atari ST, so a Forth written in GNU C can run on all these
1.17    ! anton    2752: machines.
1.3       anton    2753: 
                   2754: Writing in a portable language has the reputation of producing code that
                   2755: is slower than assembly. For our Forth engine we repeatedly looked at
                   2756: the code produced by the compiler and eliminated most compiler-induced
                   2757: inefficiencies by appropriate changes in the source-code.
                   2758: 
                   2759: However, register allocation cannot be portably influenced by the
                   2760: programmer, leading to some inefficiencies on register-starved
                   2761: machines. We use explicit register declarations (@pxref{Explicit Reg
                   2762: Vars, , Variables in Specified Registers, gcc.info, GNU C Manual}) to
                   2763: improve the speed on some machines. They are turned on by using the
                   2764: @code{gcc} switch @code{-DFORCE_REG}. Unfortunately, this feature not
                   2765: only depends on the machine, but also on the compiler version: On some
                   2766: machines some compiler versions produce incorrect code when certain
                   2767: explicit register declarations are used. So by default
                   2768: @code{-DFORCE_REG} is not used.
                   2769: 
1.4       anton    2770: @node Threading, Primitives, Portability, Internals
1.3       anton    2771: @section Threading
                   2772: 
                   2773: GNU C's labels as values extension (available since @code{gcc-2.0},
                   2774: @pxref{Labels as Values, , Labels as Values, gcc.info, GNU C Manual})
                   2775: makes it possible to take the address of @var{label} by writing
                   2776: @code{&&@var{label}}.  This address can then be used in a statement like
                   2777: @code{goto *@var{address}}. I.e., @code{goto *&&x} is the same as
                   2778: @code{goto x}.
                   2779: 
                   2780: With this feature an indirect threaded NEXT looks like:
                   2781: @example
                   2782: cfa = *ip++;
                   2783: ca = *cfa;
                   2784: goto *ca;
                   2785: @end example
                   2786: For those unfamiliar with the names: @code{ip} is the Forth instruction
                   2787: pointer; the @code{cfa} (code-field address) corresponds to ANS Forths
                   2788: execution token and points to the code field of the next word to be
                   2789: executed; The @code{ca} (code address) fetched from there points to some
                   2790: executable code, e.g., a primitive or the colon definition handler
                   2791: @code{docol}.
                   2792: 
                   2793: Direct threading is even simpler:
                   2794: @example
                   2795: ca = *ip++;
                   2796: goto *ca;
                   2797: @end example
                   2798: 
                   2799: Of course we have packaged the whole thing neatly in macros called
                   2800: @code{NEXT} and @code{NEXT1} (the part of NEXT after fetching the cfa).
                   2801: 
1.4       anton    2802: @menu
                   2803: * Scheduling::                  
                   2804: * Direct or Indirect Threaded?::  
                   2805: * DOES>::                       
                   2806: @end menu
                   2807: 
                   2808: @node Scheduling, Direct or Indirect Threaded?, Threading, Threading
1.3       anton    2809: @subsection Scheduling
                   2810: 
                   2811: There is a little complication: Pipelined and superscalar processors,
                   2812: i.e., RISC and some modern CISC machines can process independent
                   2813: instructions while waiting for the results of an instruction. The
                   2814: compiler usually reorders (schedules) the instructions in a way that
                   2815: achieves good usage of these delay slots. However, on our first tries
                   2816: the compiler did not do well on scheduling primitives. E.g., for
                   2817: @code{+} implemented as
                   2818: @example
                   2819: n=sp[0]+sp[1];
                   2820: sp++;
                   2821: sp[0]=n;
                   2822: NEXT;
                   2823: @end example
                   2824: the NEXT comes strictly after the other code, i.e., there is nearly no
                   2825: scheduling. After a little thought the problem becomes clear: The
                   2826: compiler cannot know that sp and ip point to different addresses (and
1.4       anton    2827: the version of @code{gcc} we used would not know it even if it was
                   2828: possible), so it could not move the load of the cfa above the store to
                   2829: the TOS. Indeed the pointers could be the same, if code on or very near
                   2830: the top of stack were executed. In the interest of speed we chose to
                   2831: forbid this probably unused ``feature'' and helped the compiler in
                   2832: scheduling: NEXT is divided into the loading part (@code{NEXT_P1}) and
                   2833: the goto part (@code{NEXT_P2}). @code{+} now looks like:
1.3       anton    2834: @example
                   2835: n=sp[0]+sp[1];
                   2836: sp++;
                   2837: NEXT_P1;
                   2838: sp[0]=n;
                   2839: NEXT_P2;
                   2840: @end example
1.4       anton    2841: This can be scheduled optimally by the compiler.
1.3       anton    2842: 
                   2843: This division can be turned off with the switch @code{-DCISC_NEXT}. This
                   2844: switch is on by default on machines that do not profit from scheduling
                   2845: (e.g., the 80386), in order to preserve registers.
                   2846: 
1.4       anton    2847: @node Direct or Indirect Threaded?, DOES>, Scheduling, Threading
1.3       anton    2848: @subsection Direct or Indirect Threaded?
                   2849: 
                   2850: Both! After packaging the nasty details in macro definitions we
                   2851: realized that we could switch between direct and indirect threading by
                   2852: simply setting a compilation flag (@code{-DDIRECT_THREADED}) and
                   2853: defining a few machine-specific macros for the direct-threading case.
                   2854: On the Forth level we also offer access words that hide the
                   2855: differences between the threading methods (@pxref{Threading Words}).
                   2856: 
                   2857: Indirect threading is implemented completely
                   2858: machine-independently. Direct threading needs routines for creating
                   2859: jumps to the executable code (e.g. to docol or dodoes). These routines
                   2860: are inherently machine-dependent, but they do not amount to many source
                   2861: lines. I.e., even porting direct threading to a new machine is a small
                   2862: effort.
                   2863: 
1.4       anton    2864: @node DOES>,  , Direct or Indirect Threaded?, Threading
1.3       anton    2865: @subsection DOES>
                   2866: One of the most complex parts of a Forth engine is @code{dodoes}, i.e.,
                   2867: the chunk of code executed by every word defined by a
                   2868: @code{CREATE}...@code{DOES>} pair. The main problem here is: How to find
                   2869: the Forth code to be executed, i.e. the code after the @code{DOES>} (the
                   2870: DOES-code)? There are two solutions:
                   2871: 
                   2872: In fig-Forth the code field points directly to the dodoes and the
                   2873: DOES-code address is stored in the cell after the code address
                   2874: (i.e. at cfa cell+). It may seem that this solution is illegal in the
                   2875: Forth-79 and all later standards, because in fig-Forth this address
                   2876: lies in the body (which is illegal in these standards). However, by
                   2877: making the code field larger for all words this solution becomes legal
                   2878: again. We use this approach for the indirect threaded version. Leaving
                   2879: a cell unused in most words is a bit wasteful, but on the machines we
                   2880: are targetting this is hardly a problem. The other reason for having a
                   2881: code field size of two cells is to avoid having different image files
1.4       anton    2882: for direct and indirect threaded systems (@pxref{System Architecture}).
1.3       anton    2883: 
                   2884: The other approach is that the code field points or jumps to the cell
                   2885: after @code{DOES}. In this variant there is a jump to @code{dodoes} at
                   2886: this address. @code{dodoes} can then get the DOES-code address by
                   2887: computing the code address, i.e., the address of the jump to dodoes,
                   2888: and add the length of that jump field. A variant of this is to have a
                   2889: call to @code{dodoes} after the @code{DOES>}; then the return address
                   2890: (which can be found in the return register on RISCs) is the DOES-code
                   2891: address. Since the two cells available in the code field are usually
                   2892: used up by the jump to the code address in direct threading, we use
                   2893: this approach for direct threading. We did not want to add another
                   2894: cell to the code field.
                   2895: 
1.4       anton    2896: @node Primitives, System Architecture, Threading, Internals
1.3       anton    2897: @section Primitives
                   2898: 
1.4       anton    2899: @menu
                   2900: * Automatic Generation::        
                   2901: * TOS Optimization::            
                   2902: * Produced code::               
                   2903: @end menu
                   2904: 
                   2905: @node Automatic Generation, TOS Optimization, Primitives, Primitives
1.3       anton    2906: @subsection Automatic Generation
                   2907: 
                   2908: Since the primitives are implemented in a portable language, there is no
                   2909: longer any need to minimize the number of primitives. On the contrary,
                   2910: having many primitives is an advantage: speed. In order to reduce the
                   2911: number of errors in primitives and to make programming them easier, we
                   2912: provide a tool, the primitive generator (@file{prims2x.fs}), that
                   2913: automatically generates most (and sometimes all) of the C code for a
                   2914: primitive from the stack effect notation.  The source for a primitive
                   2915: has the following form:
                   2916: 
                   2917: @format
                   2918: @var{Forth-name}       @var{stack-effect}      @var{category}  [@var{pronounc.}]
                   2919: [@code{""}@var{glossary entry}@code{""}]
                   2920: @var{C code}
                   2921: [@code{:}
                   2922: @var{Forth code}]
                   2923: @end format
                   2924: 
                   2925: The items in brackets are optional. The category and glossary fields
                   2926: are there for generating the documentation, the Forth code is there
                   2927: for manual implementations on machines without GNU C. E.g., the source
                   2928: for the primitive @code{+} is:
                   2929: @example
                   2930: +    n1 n2 -- n    core    plus
                   2931: n = n1+n2;
                   2932: @end example
                   2933: 
                   2934: This looks like a specification, but in fact @code{n = n1+n2} is C
                   2935: code. Our primitive generation tool extracts a lot of information from
                   2936: the stack effect notations@footnote{We use a one-stack notation, even
                   2937: though we have separate data and floating-point stacks; The separate
                   2938: notation can be generated easily from the unified notation.}: The number
                   2939: of items popped from and pushed on the stack, their type, and by what
                   2940: name they are referred to in the C code. It then generates a C code
                   2941: prelude and postlude for each primitive. The final C code for @code{+}
                   2942: looks like this:
                   2943: 
                   2944: @example
                   2945: I_plus:        /* + ( n1 n2 -- n ) */  /* label, stack effect */
                   2946: /*  */                          /* documentation */
1.4       anton    2947: @{
1.3       anton    2948: DEF_CA                          /* definition of variable ca (indirect threading) */
                   2949: Cell n1;                        /* definitions of variables */
                   2950: Cell n2;
                   2951: Cell n;
                   2952: n1 = (Cell) sp[1];              /* input */
                   2953: n2 = (Cell) TOS;
                   2954: sp += 1;                        /* stack adjustment */
                   2955: NAME("+")                       /* debugging output (with -DDEBUG) */
1.4       anton    2956: @{
1.3       anton    2957: n = n1+n2;                      /* C code taken from the source */
1.4       anton    2958: @}
1.3       anton    2959: NEXT_P1;                        /* NEXT part 1 */
                   2960: TOS = (Cell)n;                  /* output */
                   2961: NEXT_P2;                        /* NEXT part 2 */
1.4       anton    2962: @}
1.3       anton    2963: @end example
                   2964: 
                   2965: This looks long and inefficient, but the GNU C compiler optimizes quite
                   2966: well and produces optimal code for @code{+} on, e.g., the R3000 and the
                   2967: HP RISC machines: Defining the @code{n}s does not produce any code, and
                   2968: using them as intermediate storage also adds no cost.
                   2969: 
                   2970: There are also other optimizations, that are not illustrated by this
                   2971: example: Assignments between simple variables are usually for free (copy
                   2972: propagation). If one of the stack items is not used by the primitive
                   2973: (e.g.  in @code{drop}), the compiler eliminates the load from the stack
                   2974: (dead code elimination). On the other hand, there are some things that
                   2975: the compiler does not do, therefore they are performed by
                   2976: @file{prims2x.fs}: The compiler does not optimize code away that stores
                   2977: a stack item to the place where it just came from (e.g., @code{over}).
                   2978: 
                   2979: While programming a primitive is usually easy, there are a few cases
                   2980: where the programmer has to take the actions of the generator into
                   2981: account, most notably @code{?dup}, but also words that do not (always)
                   2982: fall through to NEXT.
                   2983: 
1.4       anton    2984: @node TOS Optimization, Produced code, Automatic Generation, Primitives
1.3       anton    2985: @subsection TOS Optimization
                   2986: 
                   2987: An important optimization for stack machine emulators, e.g., Forth
                   2988: engines, is keeping  one or more of the top stack items in
1.4       anton    2989: registers.  If a word has the stack effect @var{in1}...@var{inx} @code{--}
                   2990: @var{out1}...@var{outy}, keeping the top @var{n} items in registers
1.3       anton    2991: @itemize
                   2992: @item
                   2993: is better than keeping @var{n-1} items, if @var{x>=n} and @var{y>=n},
                   2994: due to fewer loads from and stores to the stack.
                   2995: @item is slower than keeping @var{n-1} items, if @var{x<>y} and @var{x<n} and
                   2996: @var{y<n}, due to additional moves between registers.
                   2997: @end itemize
                   2998: 
                   2999: In particular, keeping one item in a register is never a disadvantage,
                   3000: if there are enough registers. Keeping two items in registers is a
                   3001: disadvantage for frequent words like @code{?branch}, constants,
                   3002: variables, literals and @code{i}. Therefore our generator only produces
                   3003: code that keeps zero or one items in registers. The generated C code
                   3004: covers both cases; the selection between these alternatives is made at
                   3005: C-compile time using the switch @code{-DUSE_TOS}. @code{TOS} in the C
                   3006: code for @code{+} is just a simple variable name in the one-item case,
                   3007: otherwise it is a macro that expands into @code{sp[0]}. Note that the
                   3008: GNU C compiler tries to keep simple variables like @code{TOS} in
                   3009: registers, and it usually succeeds, if there are enough registers.
                   3010: 
                   3011: The primitive generator performs the TOS optimization for the
                   3012: floating-point stack, too (@code{-DUSE_FTOS}). For floating-point
                   3013: operations the benefit of this optimization is even larger:
                   3014: floating-point operations take quite long on most processors, but can be
                   3015: performed in parallel with other operations as long as their results are
                   3016: not used. If the FP-TOS is kept in a register, this works. If
                   3017: it is kept on the stack, i.e., in memory, the store into memory has to
                   3018: wait for the result of the floating-point operation, lengthening the
                   3019: execution time of the primitive considerably.
                   3020: 
                   3021: The TOS optimization makes the automatic generation of primitives a
                   3022: bit more complicated. Just replacing all occurrences of @code{sp[0]} by
                   3023: @code{TOS} is not sufficient. There are some special cases to
                   3024: consider:
                   3025: @itemize
                   3026: @item In the case of @code{dup ( w -- w w )} the generator must not
                   3027: eliminate the store to the original location of the item on the stack,
                   3028: if the TOS optimization is turned on.
1.4       anton    3029: @item Primitives with stack effects of the form @code{--}
                   3030: @var{out1}...@var{outy} must store the TOS to the stack at the start.
                   3031: Likewise, primitives with the stack effect @var{in1}...@var{inx} @code{--}
1.3       anton    3032: must load the TOS from the stack at the end. But for the null stack
                   3033: effect @code{--} no stores or loads should be generated.
                   3034: @end itemize
                   3035: 
1.4       anton    3036: @node Produced code,  , TOS Optimization, Primitives
1.3       anton    3037: @subsection Produced code
                   3038: 
                   3039: To see what assembly code is produced for the primitives on your machine
                   3040: with your compiler and your flag settings, type @code{make engine.s} and
1.4       anton    3041: look at the resulting file @file{engine.s}.
1.3       anton    3042: 
1.17    ! anton    3043: @node System Architecture, Performance, Primitives, Internals
1.3       anton    3044: @section System Architecture
                   3045: 
                   3046: Our Forth system consists not only of primitives, but also of
                   3047: definitions written in Forth. Since the Forth compiler itself belongs
                   3048: to those definitions, it is not possible to start the system with the
                   3049: primitives and the Forth source alone. Therefore we provide the Forth
                   3050: code as an image file in nearly executable form. At the start of the
                   3051: system a C routine loads the image file into memory, sets up the
                   3052: memory (stacks etc.) according to information in the image file, and
                   3053: starts executing Forth code.
                   3054: 
                   3055: The image file format is a compromise between the goals of making it
                   3056: easy to generate image files and making them portable. The easiest way
                   3057: to generate an image file is to just generate a memory dump. However,
                   3058: this kind of image file cannot be used on a different machine, or on
                   3059: the next version of the engine on the same machine, it even might not
                   3060: work with the same engine compiled by a different version of the C
                   3061: compiler. We would like to have as few versions of the image file as
                   3062: possible, because we do not want to distribute many versions of the
                   3063: same image file, and to make it easy for the users to use their image
                   3064: files on many machines. We currently need to create a different image
                   3065: file for machines with different cell sizes and different byte order
1.17    ! anton    3066: (little- or big-endian)@footnote{We are considering adding information to the
1.3       anton    3067: image file that enables the loader to change the byte order.}.
                   3068: 
                   3069: Forth code that is going to end up in a portable image file has to
1.4       anton    3070: comply to some restrictions: addresses have to be stored in memory with
                   3071: special words (@code{A!}, @code{A,}, etc.) in order to make the code
                   3072: relocatable. Cells, floats, etc., have to be stored at the natural
                   3073: alignment boundaries@footnote{E.g., store floats (8 bytes) at an address
                   3074: dividable by~8. This happens automatically in our system when you use
                   3075: the ANS Forth alignment words.}, in order to avoid alignment faults on
                   3076: machines with stricter alignment. The image file is produced by a
                   3077: metacompiler (@file{cross.fs}).
1.3       anton    3078: 
                   3079: So, unlike the image file of Mitch Bradleys @code{cforth}, our image
                   3080: file is not directly executable, but has to undergo some manipulations
                   3081: during loading. Address relocation is performed at image load-time, not
                   3082: at run-time. The loader also has to replace tokens standing for
                   3083: primitive calls with the appropriate code-field addresses (or code
                   3084: addresses in the case of direct threading).
1.4       anton    3085: 
1.17    ! anton    3086: @node  Performance,  , System Architecture, Internals
        !          3087: @section Performance
        !          3088: 
        !          3089: On RISCs the Gforth engine is very close to optimal; i.e., it is usually
        !          3090: impossible to write a significantly faster engine.
        !          3091: 
        !          3092: On register-starved machines like the 386 architecture processors
        !          3093: improvements are possible, because @code{gcc} does not utilize the
        !          3094: registers as well as a human, even with explicit register declarations;
        !          3095: e.g., Bernd Beuster wrote a Forth system fragment in assembly language
        !          3096: and hand-tuned it for the 486; this system is 1.19 times faster on the
        !          3097: Sieve benchmark on a 486DX2/66 than Gforth compiled with
        !          3098: @code{gcc-2.6.3} with @code{-DFORCE_REG}.
        !          3099: 
        !          3100: However, this potential advantage of assembly language implementations
        !          3101: is not necessarily realized in complete Forth systems: We compared
        !          3102: Gforth (compiled with @code{gcc-2.6.3} and @code{-DFORCE_REG}) with
        !          3103: Win32Forth and LMI's NT Forth, two systems written in assembly, and with
        !          3104: two systems written in C: PFE-0.9.11 (compiled with @code{gcc-2.6.3}
        !          3105: with the default configuration for Linux: @code{-O2 -fomit-frame-pointer
        !          3106: -DUSE_REGS}) and ThisForth Beta (compiled with gcc-2.6.3 -O3
        !          3107: -fomit-frame-pointer). We benchmarked Gforth, PFE and ThisForth on a
        !          3108: 486DX2/66 under Linux. Kenneth O'Heskin kindly provided the results for
        !          3109: Win32Forth and NT Forth on a 486DX2/66 with similar memory performance
        !          3110: under Windows NT.
        !          3111:  
        !          3112: We used four small benchmarks: the ubiquitous Sieve; bubble-sorting and
        !          3113: matrix multiplication come from the Stanford integer benchmarks and have
        !          3114: been translated into Forth by Martin Fraeman; we used the versions
        !          3115: included in the TILE Forth package; and a recursive Fibonacci number
        !          3116: computation for benchmark calling performance. The following table shows
        !          3117: the time taken for the benchmarks scaled by the time taken by Gforth (in
        !          3118: other words, it shows the speedup factor that Gforth achieved over the
        !          3119: other systems).
        !          3120: 
        !          3121: @example
        !          3122: relative             Win32-        NT               This-
        !          3123:   time     Gforth     Forth     Forth       PFE     Forth
        !          3124: sieve        1.00      1.30      1.07      1.67      2.98
        !          3125: bubble       1.00      1.30      1.40      1.66
        !          3126: matmul       1.00      1.40      1.29      2.24
        !          3127: fib          1.00      1.44      1.26      1.82      2.82
        !          3128: @end example
        !          3129: 
        !          3130: You may find the good performance of Gforth compared with the systems
        !          3131: written in assembly language quite surprising. One important reason for
        !          3132: the disappointing performance of these systems is probably that they are
        !          3133: not written optimally for the 486 (e.g., they use the @code{lods}
        !          3134: instruction). In addition, Win32Forth uses a comfortable, but costly
        !          3135: method for relocating the Forth image: like @code{cforth}, it computes
        !          3136: the actual addresses at run time, resulting in two address computations
        !          3137: per NEXT (@pxref{System Architecture}).
        !          3138: 
        !          3139: The speedup of Gforth over PFE and ThisForth can be easily explained
        !          3140: with the self-imposed restriction to standard C (although the measured
        !          3141: implementation of PFE uses a GNU C extension: global register
        !          3142: variables), which makes efficient threading impossible.  Moreover,
        !          3143: current C compilers have a hard time optimizing other aspects of the
        !          3144: ThisForth source.
        !          3145: 
        !          3146: Note that the performance of Gforth on 386 architecture processors
        !          3147: varies widely with the version of @code{gcc} used. E.g., @code{gcc-2.5.8}
        !          3148: failed to allocate any of the virtual machine registers into real
        !          3149: machine registers by itself and would not work correctly with explicit
        !          3150: register declarations, giving a 1.3 times slower engine (on a 486DX2/66
        !          3151: running the Sieve) than the one measured above.
        !          3152: 
1.4       anton    3153: @node Bugs, Pedigree, Internals, Top
                   3154: @chapter Bugs
                   3155: 
1.17    ! anton    3156: Known bugs are described in the file BUGS in the Gforth distribution.
        !          3157: 
        !          3158: If you find a bug, please send a bug report to !!. A bug report should
        !          3159: describe the Gforth version used (it is announced at the start of an
        !          3160: interactive Gforth session), the machine and operating system (on Unix
        !          3161: systems you can use @code{uname -a} to produce this information), the
        !          3162: installation options (!! a way to find them out), and a complete list of
        !          3163: changes you (or your installer) have made to the Gforth sources (if
        !          3164: any); it should contain a program (or a sequence of keyboard commands)
        !          3165: that reproduces the bug and a description of what you think constitutes
        !          3166: the buggy behaviour.
        !          3167: 
        !          3168: For a thorough guide on reporting bugs read @ref{Bug Reporting, , How
        !          3169: to Report Bugs, gcc.info, GNU C Manual}.
        !          3170: 
        !          3171: 
1.4       anton    3172: @node Pedigree, Word Index, Bugs, Top
                   3173: @chapter Pedigree
                   3174: 
1.17    ! anton    3175: Gforth descends from BigForth (1993) and fig-Forth. Gforth and PFE (by
        !          3176: Dirk Zoller) will cross-fertilize each other. Of course, a significant part of the design of Gforth was prescribed by ANS Forth.
        !          3177: 
        !          3178: Bernd Paysan wrote BigForth, a child of VolksForth.
        !          3179: 
        !          3180: VolksForth descends from F83. !! Authors? When?
        !          3181: 
        !          3182: Laxen and Perry wrote F83 as a model implementation of the
        !          3183: Forth-83 standard. !! Pedigree? When?
        !          3184: 
        !          3185: A team led by Bill Ragsdale implemented fig-Forth on many processors in
        !          3186: 1979. Dean Sanderson and Bill Ragsdale developed the original
        !          3187: implementation of fig-Forth based on microForth.
        !          3188: 
        !          3189: !! microForth pedigree
        !          3190: 
        !          3191: A part of the information in this section comes from @cite{The Evolution
        !          3192: of Forth} by Elizabeth D. Rather, Donald R. Colburn and Charles
        !          3193: H. Moore, presented at the HOPL-II conference and preprinted in SIGPLAN
        !          3194: Notices 28(3), 1993.  You can find more historical and genealogical
        !          3195: information about Forth there.
        !          3196: 
1.4       anton    3197: @node Word Index, Node Index, Pedigree, Top
                   3198: @chapter Word Index
                   3199: 
1.17    ! anton    3200: This index is as incomplete as the manual.
        !          3201: 
        !          3202: @printindex fn
        !          3203: 
1.4       anton    3204: @node Node Index,  , Word Index, Top
                   3205: @chapter Node Index
1.17    ! anton    3206: 
        !          3207: This index is even less complete than the manual.
1.1       anton    3208: 
                   3209: @contents
                   3210: @bye
                   3211: 

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