File:  [gforth] / gforth / Attic / gforth.ds
Revision 1.40: download - view: text, annotated - select for diffs
Mon Nov 11 16:59:16 1996 UTC (27 years, 4 months ago) by anton
Branches: MAIN
CVS tags: v0-2-1, v0-2-0, HEAD
Added ans-report.fs objects.fs

    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.)
    4: @setfilename gforth.info
    5: @settitle Gforth Manual
    6: @comment @setchapternewpage odd
    7: @comment %**end of header (This is for running Texinfo on a region.)
    8: 
    9: @ifinfo
   10: This file documents Gforth 0.2
   11: 
   12: Copyright @copyright{} 1995,1996 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
   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:      
   18: @ignore
   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:      
   24: @end ignore
   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: @finalout
   40: @titlepage
   41: @sp 10
   42: @center @titlefont{Gforth Manual}
   43: @sp 2
   44: @center for version 0.2
   45: @sp 2
   46: @center Anton Ertl
   47: @center Bernd Paysan
   48: @sp 3
   49: @center This manual is under construction
   50: 
   51: @comment  The following two commands start the copyright page.
   52: @page
   53: @vskip 0pt plus 1filll
   54: Copyright @copyright{} 1995,1996 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
   55: 
   56: @comment !! Published by ... or You can get a copy of this manual ...
   57: 
   58:      Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of
   59:      this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice
   60:      are preserved on all copies.
   61:      
   62:      Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this
   63:      manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided also that the
   64:      sections entitled "Distribution" and "General Public License" are
   65:      included exactly as in the original, and provided that the entire
   66:      resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a permission
   67:      notice identical to this one.
   68:      
   69:      Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual
   70:      into another language, under the above conditions for modified versions,
   71:      except that the sections entitled "Distribution" and "General Public
   72:      License" may be included in a translation approved by the author instead
   73:      of in the original English.
   74: @end titlepage
   75: 
   76: 
   77: @node Top, License, (dir), (dir)
   78: @ifinfo
   79: Gforth is a free implementation of ANS Forth available on many
   80: personal machines. This manual corresponds to version 0.2.
   81: @end ifinfo
   82: 
   83: @menu
   84: * License::                     
   85: * Goals::                       About the Gforth Project
   86: * Other Books::                 Things you might want to read
   87: * Invocation::                  Starting Gforth
   88: * Words::                       Forth words available in Gforth
   89: * Tools::                       Programming tools
   90: * ANS conformance::             Implementation-defined options etc.
   91: * Model::                       The abstract machine of Gforth
   92: * Integrating Gforth::          Forth as scripting language for applications.
   93: * Emacs and Gforth::            The Gforth Mode
   94: * Internals::                   Implementation details
   95: * Bugs::                        How to report them
   96: * Origin::                      Authors and ancestors of Gforth
   97: * Word Index::                  An item for each Forth word
   98: * Node Index::                  An item for each node
   99: @end menu
  100: 
  101: @node License, Goals, Top, Top
  102: @unnumbered GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
  103: @center Version 2, June 1991
  104: 
  105: @display
  106: Copyright @copyright{} 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
  107: 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
  108: 
  109: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
  110: of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.
  111: @end display
  112: 
  113: @unnumberedsec Preamble
  114: 
  115:   The licenses for most software are designed to take away your
  116: freedom to share and change it.  By contrast, the GNU General Public
  117: License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free
  118: software---to make sure the software is free for all its users.  This
  119: General Public License applies to most of the Free Software
  120: Foundation's software and to any other program whose authors commit to
  121: using it.  (Some other Free Software Foundation software is covered by
  122: the GNU Library General Public License instead.)  You can apply it to
  123: your programs, too.
  124: 
  125:   When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not
  126: price.  Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you
  127: have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for
  128: this service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it
  129: if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it
  130: in new free programs; and that you know you can do these things.
  131: 
  132:   To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid
  133: anyone to deny you these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights.
  134: These restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for you if you
  135: distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it.
  136: 
  137:   For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether
  138: gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that
  139: you have.  You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the
  140: source code.  And you must show them these terms so they know their
  141: rights.
  142: 
  143:   We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and
  144: (2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy,
  145: distribute and/or modify the software.
  146: 
  147:   Also, for each author's protection and ours, we want to make certain
  148: that everyone understands that there is no warranty for this free
  149: software.  If the software is modified by someone else and passed on, we
  150: want its recipients to know that what they have is not the original, so
  151: that any problems introduced by others will not reflect on the original
  152: authors' reputations.
  153: 
  154:   Finally, any free program is threatened constantly by software
  155: patents.  We wish to avoid the danger that redistributors of a free
  156: program will individually obtain patent licenses, in effect making the
  157: program proprietary.  To prevent this, we have made it clear that any
  158: patent must be licensed for everyone's free use or not licensed at all.
  159: 
  160:   The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and
  161: modification follow.
  162: 
  163: @iftex
  164: @unnumberedsec TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION
  165: @end iftex
  166: @ifinfo
  167: @center TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION
  168: @end ifinfo
  169: 
  170: @enumerate 0
  171: @item
  172: This License applies to any program or other work which contains
  173: a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it may be distributed
  174: under the terms of this General Public License.  The ``Program'', below,
  175: refers to any such program or work, and a ``work based on the Program''
  176: means either the Program or any derivative work under copyright law:
  177: that is to say, a work containing the Program or a portion of it,
  178: either verbatim or with modifications and/or translated into another
  179: language.  (Hereinafter, translation is included without limitation in
  180: the term ``modification''.)  Each licensee is addressed as ``you''.
  181: 
  182: Activities other than copying, distribution and modification are not
  183: covered by this License; they are outside its scope.  The act of
  184: running the Program is not restricted, and the output from the Program
  185: is covered only if its contents constitute a work based on the
  186: Program (independent of having been made by running the Program).
  187: Whether that is true depends on what the Program does.
  188: 
  189: @item
  190: You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program's
  191: source code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you
  192: conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate
  193: copyright notice and disclaimer of warranty; keep intact all the
  194: notices that refer to this License and to the absence of any warranty;
  195: and give any other recipients of the Program a copy of this License
  196: along with the Program.
  197: 
  198: You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and
  199: you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a fee.
  200: 
  201: @item
  202: You may modify your copy or copies of the Program or any portion
  203: of it, thus forming a work based on the Program, and copy and
  204: distribute such modifications or work under the terms of Section 1
  205: above, provided that you also meet all of these conditions:
  206: 
  207: @enumerate a
  208: @item
  209: You must cause the modified files to carry prominent notices
  210: stating that you changed the files and the date of any change.
  211: 
  212: @item
  213: You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in
  214: whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any
  215: part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third
  216: parties under the terms of this License.
  217: 
  218: @item
  219: If the modified program normally reads commands interactively
  220: when run, you must cause it, when started running for such
  221: interactive use in the most ordinary way, to print or display an
  222: announcement including an appropriate copyright notice and a
  223: notice that there is no warranty (or else, saying that you provide
  224: a warranty) and that users may redistribute the program under
  225: these conditions, and telling the user how to view a copy of this
  226: License.  (Exception: if the Program itself is interactive but
  227: does not normally print such an announcement, your work based on
  228: the Program is not required to print an announcement.)
  229: @end enumerate
  230: 
  231: These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole.  If
  232: identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the Program,
  233: and can be reasonably considered independent and separate works in
  234: themselves, then this License, and its terms, do not apply to those
  235: sections when you distribute them as separate works.  But when you
  236: distribute the same sections as part of a whole which is a work based
  237: on the Program, the distribution of the whole must be on the terms of
  238: this License, whose permissions for other licensees extend to the
  239: entire whole, and thus to each and every part regardless of who wrote it.
  240: 
  241: Thus, it is not the intent of this section to claim rights or contest
  242: your rights to work written entirely by you; rather, the intent is to
  243: exercise the right to control the distribution of derivative or
  244: collective works based on the Program.
  245: 
  246: In addition, mere aggregation of another work not based on the Program
  247: with the Program (or with a work based on the Program) on a volume of
  248: a storage or distribution medium does not bring the other work under
  249: the scope of this License.
  250: 
  251: @item
  252: You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it,
  253: under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of
  254: Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following:
  255: 
  256: @enumerate a
  257: @item
  258: Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable
  259: source code, which must be distributed under the terms of Sections
  260: 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,
  261: 
  262: @item
  263: Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three
  264: years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your
  265: cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete
  266: machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, to be
  267: distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium
  268: customarily used for software interchange; or,
  269: 
  270: @item
  271: Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer
  272: to distribute corresponding source code.  (This alternative is
  273: allowed only for noncommercial distribution and only if you
  274: received the program in object code or executable form with such
  275: an offer, in accord with Subsection b above.)
  276: @end enumerate
  277: 
  278: The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work for
  279: making modifications to it.  For an executable work, complete source
  280: code means all the source code for all modules it contains, plus any
  281: associated interface definition files, plus the scripts used to
  282: control compilation and installation of the executable.  However, as a
  283: special exception, the source code distributed need not include
  284: anything that is normally distributed (in either source or binary
  285: form) with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the
  286: operating system on which the executable runs, unless that component
  287: itself accompanies the executable.
  288: 
  289: If distribution of executable or object code is made by offering
  290: access to copy from a designated place, then offering equivalent
  291: access to copy the source code from the same place counts as
  292: distribution of the source code, even though third parties are not
  293: compelled to copy the source along with the object code.
  294: 
  295: @item
  296: You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Program
  297: except as expressly provided under this License.  Any attempt
  298: otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Program is
  299: void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License.
  300: However, parties who have received copies, or rights, from you under
  301: this License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such
  302: parties remain in full compliance.
  303: 
  304: @item
  305: You are not required to accept this License, since you have not
  306: signed it.  However, nothing else grants you permission to modify or
  307: distribute the Program or its derivative works.  These actions are
  308: prohibited by law if you do not accept this License.  Therefore, by
  309: modifying or distributing the Program (or any work based on the
  310: Program), you indicate your acceptance of this License to do so, and
  311: all its terms and conditions for copying, distributing or modifying
  312: the Program or works based on it.
  313: 
  314: @item
  315: Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the
  316: Program), the recipient automatically receives a license from the
  317: original licensor to copy, distribute or modify the Program subject to
  318: these terms and conditions.  You may not impose any further
  319: restrictions on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein.
  320: You are not responsible for enforcing compliance by third parties to
  321: this License.
  322: 
  323: @item
  324: If, as a consequence of a court judgment or allegation of patent
  325: infringement or for any other reason (not limited to patent issues),
  326: conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order, agreement or
  327: otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License, they do not
  328: excuse you from the conditions of this License.  If you cannot
  329: distribute so as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations under this
  330: License and any other pertinent obligations, then as a consequence you
  331: may not distribute the Program at all.  For example, if a patent
  332: license would not permit royalty-free redistribution of the Program by
  333: all those who receive copies directly or indirectly through you, then
  334: the only way you could satisfy both it and this License would be to
  335: refrain entirely from distribution of the Program.
  336: 
  337: If any portion of this section is held invalid or unenforceable under
  338: any particular circumstance, the balance of the section is intended to
  339: apply and the section as a whole is intended to apply in other
  340: circumstances.
  341: 
  342: It is not the purpose of this section to induce you to infringe any
  343: patents or other property right claims or to contest validity of any
  344: such claims; this section has the sole purpose of protecting the
  345: integrity of the free software distribution system, which is
  346: implemented by public license practices.  Many people have made
  347: generous contributions to the wide range of software distributed
  348: through that system in reliance on consistent application of that
  349: system; it is up to the author/donor to decide if he or she is willing
  350: to distribute software through any other system and a licensee cannot
  351: impose that choice.
  352: 
  353: This section is intended to make thoroughly clear what is believed to
  354: be a consequence of the rest of this License.
  355: 
  356: @item
  357: If the distribution and/or use of the Program is restricted in
  358: certain countries either by patents or by copyrighted interfaces, the
  359: original copyright holder who places the Program under this License
  360: may add an explicit geographical distribution limitation excluding
  361: those countries, so that distribution is permitted only in or among
  362: countries not thus excluded.  In such case, this License incorporates
  363: the limitation as if written in the body of this License.
  364: 
  365: @item
  366: The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new versions
  367: of the General Public License from time to time.  Such new versions will
  368: be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to
  369: address new problems or concerns.
  370: 
  371: Each version is given a distinguishing version number.  If the Program
  372: specifies a version number of this License which applies to it and ``any
  373: later version'', you have the option of following the terms and conditions
  374: either of that version or of any later version published by the Free
  375: Software Foundation.  If the Program does not specify a version number of
  376: this License, you may choose any version ever published by the Free Software
  377: Foundation.
  378: 
  379: @item
  380: If you wish to incorporate parts of the Program into other free
  381: programs whose distribution conditions are different, write to the author
  382: to ask for permission.  For software which is copyrighted by the Free
  383: Software Foundation, write to the Free Software Foundation; we sometimes
  384: make exceptions for this.  Our decision will be guided by the two goals
  385: of preserving the free status of all derivatives of our free software and
  386: of promoting the sharing and reuse of software generally.
  387: 
  388: @iftex
  389: @heading NO WARRANTY
  390: @end iftex
  391: @ifinfo
  392: @center NO WARRANTY
  393: @end ifinfo
  394: 
  395: @item
  396: BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY
  397: FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW.  EXCEPT WHEN
  398: OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES
  399: PROVIDE THE PROGRAM ``AS IS'' WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED
  400: OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
  401: MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  THE ENTIRE RISK AS
  402: TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU.  SHOULD THE
  403: PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING,
  404: REPAIR OR CORRECTION.
  405: 
  406: @item
  407: IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING
  408: WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/OR
  409: REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES,
  410: INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING
  411: OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED
  412: TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY
  413: YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER
  414: PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE
  415: POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
  416: @end enumerate
  417: 
  418: @iftex
  419: @heading END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS
  420: @end iftex
  421: @ifinfo
  422: @center END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS
  423: @end ifinfo
  424: 
  425: @page
  426: @unnumberedsec How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs
  427: 
  428:   If you develop a new program, and you want it to be of the greatest
  429: possible use to the public, the best way to achieve this is to make it
  430: free software which everyone can redistribute and change under these terms.
  431: 
  432:   To do so, attach the following notices to the program.  It is safest
  433: to attach them to the start of each source file to most effectively
  434: convey the exclusion of warranty; and each file should have at least
  435: the ``copyright'' line and a pointer to where the full notice is found.
  436: 
  437: @smallexample
  438: @var{one line to give the program's name and a brief idea of what it does.}
  439: Copyright (C) 19@var{yy}  @var{name of author}
  440: 
  441: This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify 
  442: it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by 
  443: the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or 
  444: (at your option) any later version.
  445: 
  446: This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
  447: but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
  448: MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
  449: GNU General Public License for more details.
  450: 
  451: You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
  452: along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
  453: Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
  454: @end smallexample
  455: 
  456: Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and paper mail.
  457: 
  458: If the program is interactive, make it output a short notice like this
  459: when it starts in an interactive mode:
  460: 
  461: @smallexample
  462: Gnomovision version 69, Copyright (C) 19@var{yy} @var{name of author}
  463: Gnomovision comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details
  464: type `show w'.  
  465: This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it 
  466: under certain conditions; type `show c' for details.
  467: @end smallexample
  468: 
  469: The hypothetical commands @samp{show w} and @samp{show c} should show
  470: the appropriate parts of the General Public License.  Of course, the
  471: commands you use may be called something other than @samp{show w} and
  472: @samp{show c}; they could even be mouse-clicks or menu items---whatever
  473: suits your program.
  474: 
  475: You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or your
  476: school, if any, to sign a ``copyright disclaimer'' for the program, if
  477: necessary.  Here is a sample; alter the names:
  478: 
  479: @smallexample
  480: Yoyodyne, Inc., hereby disclaims all copyright interest in the program
  481: `Gnomovision' (which makes passes at compilers) written by James Hacker.
  482: 
  483: @var{signature of Ty Coon}, 1 April 1989
  484: Ty Coon, President of Vice
  485: @end smallexample
  486: 
  487: This General Public License does not permit incorporating your program into
  488: proprietary programs.  If your program is a subroutine library, you may
  489: consider it more useful to permit linking proprietary applications with the
  490: library.  If this is what you want to do, use the GNU Library General
  491: Public License instead of this License.
  492: 
  493: @iftex
  494: @node    Preface
  495: @comment node-name,     next,           previous, up
  496: @unnumbered Preface
  497: @cindex Preface
  498: This manual documents Gforth. The reader is expected to know
  499: Forth. This manual is primarily a reference manual. @xref{Other Books}
  500: for introductory material.
  501: @end iftex
  502: 
  503: @node    Goals, Other Books, License, Top
  504: @comment node-name,     next,           previous, up
  505: @chapter Goals of Gforth
  506: @cindex Goals
  507: The goal of the Gforth Project is to develop a standard model for
  508: ANSI Forth. This can be split into several subgoals:
  509: 
  510: @itemize @bullet
  511: @item
  512: Gforth should conform to the ANSI Forth standard.
  513: @item
  514: It should be a model, i.e. it should define all the
  515: implementation-dependent things.
  516: @item
  517: It should become standard, i.e. widely accepted and used. This goal
  518: is the most difficult one.
  519: @end itemize
  520: 
  521: To achieve these goals Gforth should be
  522: @itemize @bullet
  523: @item
  524: Similar to previous models (fig-Forth, F83)
  525: @item
  526: Powerful. It should provide for all the things that are considered
  527: necessary today and even some that are not yet considered necessary.
  528: @item
  529: Efficient. It should not get the reputation of being exceptionally
  530: slow.
  531: @item
  532: Free.
  533: @item
  534: Available on many machines/easy to port.
  535: @end itemize
  536: 
  537: Have we achieved these goals? Gforth conforms to the ANS Forth
  538: standard. It may be considered a model, but we have not yet documented
  539: which parts of the model are stable and which parts we are likely to
  540: change. It certainly has not yet become a de facto standard. It has some
  541: similarities and some differences to previous models. It has some
  542: powerful features, but not yet everything that we envisioned. We
  543: certainly have achieved our execution speed goals (@pxref{Performance}).
  544: It is free and available on many machines.
  545: 
  546: @node Other Books, Invocation, Goals, Top
  547: @chapter Other books on ANS Forth
  548: 
  549: As the standard is relatively new, there are not many books out yet. It
  550: is not recommended to learn Forth by using Gforth and a book that is
  551: not written for ANS Forth, as you will not know your mistakes from the
  552: deviations of the book.
  553: 
  554: There is, of course, the standard, the definite reference if you want to
  555: write ANS Forth programs. It is available in printed form from the
  556: National Standards Institute Sales Department (Tel.: USA (212) 642-4900;
  557: Fax.: USA (212) 302-1286) as document @cite{X3.215-1994} for about $200. You
  558: can also get it from Global Engineering Documents (Tel.: USA (800)
  559: 854-7179; Fax.: (303) 843-9880) for about $300.
  560: 
  561: @cite{dpANS6}, the last draft of the standard, which was then submitted to ANSI
  562: for publication is available electronically and for free in some MS Word
  563: format, and it has been converted to HTML. Some pointers to these
  564: versions can be found through
  565: @*@file{http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/projects/forth.html}.
  566: 
  567: @cite{Forth: The new model} by Jack Woehr (Prentice-Hall, 1993) is an
  568: introductory book based on a draft version of the standard. It does not
  569: cover the whole standard. It also contains interesting background
  570: information (Jack Woehr was in the ANS Forth Technical Committe). It is
  571: not appropriate for complete newbies, but programmers experienced in
  572: other languages should find it ok.
  573: 
  574: @node Invocation, Words, Other Books, Top
  575: @chapter Invocation
  576: 
  577: You will usually just say @code{gforth}. In many other cases the default
  578: Gforth image will be invoked like this:
  579: 
  580: @example
  581: gforth [files] [-e forth-code]
  582: @end example
  583: 
  584: executing the contents of the files and the Forth code in the order they
  585: are given.
  586: 
  587: In general, the command line looks like this:
  588: 
  589: @example
  590: gforth [initialization options] [image-specific options]
  591: @end example
  592: 
  593: The initialization options must come before the rest of the command
  594: line. They are:
  595: 
  596: @table @code
  597: @item --image-file @var{file}
  598: @item -i @var{file}
  599: Loads the Forth image @var{file} instead of the default
  600: @file{gforth.fi}.
  601: 
  602: @item --path @var{path}
  603: @item -p @var{path}
  604: Uses @var{path} for searching the image file and Forth source code files
  605: instead of the default in the environment variable @code{GFORTHPATH} or
  606: the path specified at installation time (e.g.,
  607: @file{/usr/local/share/gforth/0.2.0:.}). A path is given as a list of
  608: directories, separated by @samp{:} (on Unix) or @samp{;} (on other OSs).
  609: 
  610: @item --dictionary-size @var{size}
  611: @item -m @var{size}
  612: Allocate @var{size} space for the Forth dictionary space instead of
  613: using the default specified in the image (typically 256K). The
  614: @var{size} specification consists of an integer and a unit (e.g.,
  615: @code{4M}). The unit can be one of @code{b} (bytes), @code{e} (element
  616: size, in this case Cells), @code{k} (kilobytes), and @code{M}
  617: (Megabytes). If no unit is specified, @code{e} is used.
  618: 
  619: @item --data-stack-size @var{size}
  620: @item -d @var{size}
  621: Allocate @var{size} space for the data stack instead of using the
  622: default specified in the image (typically 16K).
  623: 
  624: @item --return-stack-size @var{size}
  625: @item -r @var{size}
  626: Allocate @var{size} space for the return stack instead of using the
  627: default specified in the image (typically 16K).
  628: 
  629: @item --fp-stack-size @var{size}
  630: @item -f @var{size}
  631: Allocate @var{size} space for the floating point stack instead of
  632: using the default specified in the image (typically 16K). In this case
  633: the unit specifier @code{e} refers to floating point numbers.
  634: 
  635: @item --locals-stack-size @var{size}
  636: @item -l @var{size}
  637: Allocate @var{size} space for the locals stack instead of using the
  638: default specified in the image (typically 16K).
  639: 
  640: @end table
  641: 
  642: As explained above, the image-specific command-line arguments for the
  643: default image @file{gforth.fi} consist of a sequence of filenames and
  644: @code{-e @var{forth-code}} options that are interpreted in the seqence
  645: in which they are given. The @code{-e @var{forth-code}} or
  646: @code{--evaluate @var{forth-code}} option evaluates the forth
  647: code. This option takes only one argument; if you want to evaluate more
  648: Forth words, you have to quote them or use several @code{-e}s. To exit
  649: after processing the command line (instead of entering interactive mode)
  650: append @code{-e bye} to the command line.
  651: 
  652: If you have several versions of Gforth installed, @code{gforth} will
  653: invoke the version that was installed last. @code{gforth-@var{version}}
  654: invokes a specific version. You may want to use the option
  655: @code{--path}, if your environment contains the variable
  656: @code{GFORTHPATH}.
  657: 
  658: Not yet implemented:
  659: On startup the system first executes the system initialization file
  660: (unless the option @code{--no-init-file} is given; note that the system
  661: resulting from using this option may not be ANS Forth conformant). Then
  662: the user initialization file @file{.gforth.fs} is executed, unless the
  663: option @code{--no-rc} is given; this file is first searched in @file{.},
  664: then in @file{~}, then in the normal path (see above).
  665: 
  666: @node Words, Tools, Invocation, Top
  667: @chapter Forth Words
  668: 
  669: @menu
  670: * Notation::                    
  671: * Arithmetic::                  
  672: * Stack Manipulation::          
  673: * Memory access::               
  674: * Control Structures::          
  675: * Locals::                      
  676: * Defining Words::              
  677: * Tokens for Words::            
  678: * Wordlists::                   
  679: * Files::                       
  680: * Blocks::                      
  681: * Other I/O::                   
  682: * Programming Tools::           
  683: * Assembler and Code words::    
  684: * Threading Words::             
  685: @end menu
  686: 
  687: @node Notation, Arithmetic, Words, Words
  688: @section Notation
  689: 
  690: The Forth words are described in this section in the glossary notation
  691: that has become a de-facto standard for Forth texts, i.e.
  692: 
  693: @format
  694: @var{word}     @var{Stack effect}   @var{wordset}   @var{pronunciation}
  695: @end format
  696: @var{Description}
  697: 
  698: @table @var
  699: @item word
  700: The name of the word. BTW, Gforth is case insensitive, so you can
  701: type the words in in lower case (However, @pxref{core-idef}).
  702: 
  703: @item Stack effect
  704: The stack effect is written in the notation @code{@var{before} --
  705: @var{after}}, where @var{before} and @var{after} describe the top of
  706: stack entries before and after the execution of the word. The rest of
  707: the stack is not touched by the word. The top of stack is rightmost,
  708: i.e., a stack sequence is written as it is typed in. Note that Gforth
  709: uses a separate floating point stack, but a unified stack
  710: notation. Also, return stack effects are not shown in @var{stack
  711: effect}, but in @var{Description}. The name of a stack item describes
  712: the type and/or the function of the item. See below for a discussion of
  713: the types.
  714: 
  715: All words have two stack effects: A compile-time stack effect and a
  716: run-time stack effect. The compile-time stack-effect of most words is
  717: @var{ -- }. If the compile-time stack-effect of a word deviates from
  718: this standard behaviour, or the word does other unusual things at
  719: compile time, both stack effects are shown; otherwise only the run-time
  720: stack effect is shown.
  721: 
  722: @item pronunciation
  723: How the word is pronounced
  724: 
  725: @item wordset
  726: The ANS Forth standard is divided into several wordsets. A standard
  727: system need not support all of them. So, the fewer wordsets your program
  728: uses the more portable it will be in theory. However, we suspect that
  729: most ANS Forth systems on personal machines will feature all
  730: wordsets. Words that are not defined in the ANS standard have
  731: @code{gforth} or @code{gforth-internal} as wordset. @code{gforth}
  732: describes words that will work in future releases of Gforth;
  733: @code{gforth-internal} words are more volatile. Environmental query
  734: strings are also displayed like words; you can recognize them by the
  735: @code{environment} in the wordset field.
  736: 
  737: @item Description
  738: A description of the behaviour of the word.
  739: @end table
  740: 
  741: The type of a stack item is specified by the character(s) the name
  742: starts with:
  743: 
  744: @table @code
  745: @item f
  746: Bool, i.e. @code{false} or @code{true}.
  747: @item c
  748: Char
  749: @item w
  750: Cell, can contain an integer or an address
  751: @item n
  752: signed integer
  753: @item u
  754: unsigned integer
  755: @item d
  756: double sized signed integer
  757: @item ud
  758: double sized unsigned integer
  759: @item r
  760: Float (on the FP stack)
  761: @item a_
  762: Cell-aligned address
  763: @item c_
  764: Char-aligned address (note that a Char may have two bytes in Windows NT)
  765: @item f_
  766: Float-aligned address
  767: @item df_
  768: Address aligned for IEEE double precision float
  769: @item sf_
  770: Address aligned for IEEE single precision float
  771: @item xt
  772: Execution token, same size as Cell
  773: @item wid
  774: Wordlist ID, same size as Cell
  775: @item f83name
  776: Pointer to a name structure
  777: @item "
  778: string in the input stream (not the stack). The terminating character is
  779: a blank by default. If it is not a blank, it is shown in @code{<>}
  780: quotes.
  781: 
  782: @end table
  783: 
  784: @node Arithmetic, Stack Manipulation, Notation, Words
  785: @section Arithmetic
  786: Forth arithmetic is not checked, i.e., you will not hear about integer
  787: overflow on addition or multiplication, you may hear about division by
  788: zero if you are lucky. The operator is written after the operands, but
  789: the operands are still in the original order. I.e., the infix @code{2-1}
  790: corresponds to @code{2 1 -}. Forth offers a variety of division
  791: operators. If you perform division with potentially negative operands,
  792: you do not want to use @code{/} or @code{/mod} with its undefined
  793: behaviour, but rather @code{fm/mod} or @code{sm/mod} (probably the
  794: former, @pxref{Mixed precision}).
  795: 
  796: @menu
  797: * Single precision::            
  798: * Bitwise operations::          
  799: * Mixed precision::             operations with single and double-cell integers
  800: * Double precision::            Double-cell integer arithmetic
  801: * Floating Point::              
  802: @end menu
  803: 
  804: @node Single precision, Bitwise operations, Arithmetic, Arithmetic
  805: @subsection Single precision
  806: doc-+
  807: doc--
  808: doc-*
  809: doc-/
  810: doc-mod
  811: doc-/mod
  812: doc-negate
  813: doc-abs
  814: doc-min
  815: doc-max
  816: 
  817: @node Bitwise operations, Mixed precision, Single precision, Arithmetic
  818: @subsection Bitwise operations
  819: doc-and
  820: doc-or
  821: doc-xor
  822: doc-invert
  823: doc-2*
  824: doc-2/
  825: 
  826: @node Mixed precision, Double precision, Bitwise operations, Arithmetic
  827: @subsection Mixed precision
  828: doc-m+
  829: doc-*/
  830: doc-*/mod
  831: doc-m*
  832: doc-um*
  833: doc-m*/
  834: doc-um/mod
  835: doc-fm/mod
  836: doc-sm/rem
  837: 
  838: @node Double precision, Floating Point, Mixed precision, Arithmetic
  839: @subsection Double precision
  840: 
  841: The outer (aka text) interpreter converts numbers containing a dot into
  842: a double precision number. Note that only numbers with the dot as last
  843: character are standard-conforming.
  844: 
  845: doc-d+
  846: doc-d-
  847: doc-dnegate
  848: doc-dabs
  849: doc-dmin
  850: doc-dmax
  851: 
  852: @node Floating Point,  , Double precision, Arithmetic
  853: @subsection Floating Point
  854: 
  855: The format of floating point numbers recognized by the outer (aka text)
  856: interpreter is: a signed decimal number, possibly containing a decimal
  857: point (@code{.}), followed by @code{E} or @code{e}, optionally followed
  858: by a signed integer (the exponent). E.g., @code{1e} ist the same as
  859: @code{+1.0e+0}. Note that a number without @code{e}
  860: is not interpreted as floating-point number, but as double (if the
  861: number contains a @code{.}) or single precision integer. Also,
  862: conversions between string and floating point numbers always use base
  863: 10, irrespective of the value of @code{BASE}. If @code{BASE} contains a
  864: value greater then 14, the @code{E} may be interpreted as digit and the
  865: number will be interpreted as integer, unless it has a signed exponent
  866: (both @code{+} and @code{-} are allowed as signs).
  867: 
  868: Angles in floating point operations are given in radians (a full circle
  869: has 2 pi radians). Note, that Gforth has a separate floating point
  870: stack, but we use the unified notation.
  871: 
  872: Floating point numbers have a number of unpleasant surprises for the
  873: unwary (e.g., floating point addition is not associative) and even a few
  874: for the wary. You should not use them unless you know what you are doing
  875: or you don't care that the results you get are totally bogus. If you
  876: want to learn about the problems of floating point numbers (and how to
  877: avoid them), you might start with @cite{David Goldberg, What Every
  878: Computer Scientist Should Know About Floating-Point Arithmetic, ACM
  879: Computing Surveys 23(1):5@minus{}48, March 1991}.
  880: 
  881: doc-f+
  882: doc-f-
  883: doc-f*
  884: doc-f/
  885: doc-fnegate
  886: doc-fabs
  887: doc-fmax
  888: doc-fmin
  889: doc-floor
  890: doc-fround
  891: doc-f**
  892: doc-fsqrt
  893: doc-fexp
  894: doc-fexpm1
  895: doc-fln
  896: doc-flnp1
  897: doc-flog
  898: doc-falog
  899: doc-fsin
  900: doc-fcos
  901: doc-fsincos
  902: doc-ftan
  903: doc-fasin
  904: doc-facos
  905: doc-fatan
  906: doc-fatan2
  907: doc-fsinh
  908: doc-fcosh
  909: doc-ftanh
  910: doc-fasinh
  911: doc-facosh
  912: doc-fatanh
  913: 
  914: @node Stack Manipulation, Memory access, Arithmetic, Words
  915: @section Stack Manipulation
  916: 
  917: Gforth has a data stack (aka parameter stack) for characters, cells,
  918: addresses, and double cells, a floating point stack for floating point
  919: numbers, a return stack for storing the return addresses of colon
  920: definitions and other data, and a locals stack for storing local
  921: variables. Note that while every sane Forth has a separate floating
  922: point stack, this is not strictly required; an ANS Forth system could
  923: theoretically keep floating point numbers on the data stack. As an
  924: additional difficulty, you don't know how many cells a floating point
  925: number takes. It is reportedly possible to write words in a way that
  926: they work also for a unified stack model, but we do not recommend trying
  927: it. Instead, just say that your program has an environmental dependency
  928: on a separate FP stack.
  929: 
  930: Also, a Forth system is allowed to keep the local variables on the
  931: return stack. This is reasonable, as local variables usually eliminate
  932: the need to use the return stack explicitly. So, if you want to produce
  933: a standard complying program and if you are using local variables in a
  934: word, forget about return stack manipulations in that word (see the
  935: standard document for the exact rules).
  936: 
  937: @menu
  938: * Data stack::                  
  939: * Floating point stack::        
  940: * Return stack::                
  941: * Locals stack::                
  942: * Stack pointer manipulation::  
  943: @end menu
  944: 
  945: @node Data stack, Floating point stack, Stack Manipulation, Stack Manipulation
  946: @subsection Data stack
  947: doc-drop
  948: doc-nip
  949: doc-dup
  950: doc-over
  951: doc-tuck
  952: doc-swap
  953: doc-rot
  954: doc--rot
  955: doc-?dup
  956: doc-pick
  957: doc-roll
  958: doc-2drop
  959: doc-2nip
  960: doc-2dup
  961: doc-2over
  962: doc-2tuck
  963: doc-2swap
  964: doc-2rot
  965: 
  966: @node Floating point stack, Return stack, Data stack, Stack Manipulation
  967: @subsection Floating point stack
  968: doc-fdrop
  969: doc-fnip
  970: doc-fdup
  971: doc-fover
  972: doc-ftuck
  973: doc-fswap
  974: doc-frot
  975: 
  976: @node Return stack, Locals stack, Floating point stack, Stack Manipulation
  977: @subsection Return stack
  978: doc->r
  979: doc-r>
  980: doc-r@
  981: doc-rdrop
  982: doc-2>r
  983: doc-2r>
  984: doc-2r@
  985: doc-2rdrop
  986: 
  987: @node Locals stack, Stack pointer manipulation, Return stack, Stack Manipulation
  988: @subsection Locals stack
  989: 
  990: @node Stack pointer manipulation,  , Locals stack, Stack Manipulation
  991: @subsection Stack pointer manipulation
  992: doc-sp@
  993: doc-sp!
  994: doc-fp@
  995: doc-fp!
  996: doc-rp@
  997: doc-rp!
  998: doc-lp@
  999: doc-lp!
 1000: 
 1001: @node Memory access, Control Structures, Stack Manipulation, Words
 1002: @section Memory access
 1003: 
 1004: @menu
 1005: * Stack-Memory transfers::      
 1006: * Address arithmetic::          
 1007: * Memory block access::         
 1008: @end menu
 1009: 
 1010: @node Stack-Memory transfers, Address arithmetic, Memory access, Memory access
 1011: @subsection Stack-Memory transfers
 1012: 
 1013: doc-@
 1014: doc-!
 1015: doc-+!
 1016: doc-c@
 1017: doc-c!
 1018: doc-2@
 1019: doc-2!
 1020: doc-f@
 1021: doc-f!
 1022: doc-sf@
 1023: doc-sf!
 1024: doc-df@
 1025: doc-df!
 1026: 
 1027: @node Address arithmetic, Memory block access, Stack-Memory transfers, Memory access
 1028: @subsection Address arithmetic
 1029: 
 1030: ANS Forth does not specify the sizes of the data types. Instead, it
 1031: offers a number of words for computing sizes and doing address
 1032: arithmetic. Basically, address arithmetic is performed in terms of
 1033: address units (aus); on most systems the address unit is one byte. Note
 1034: that a character may have more than one au, so @code{chars} is no noop
 1035: (on systems where it is a noop, it compiles to nothing).
 1036: 
 1037: ANS Forth also defines words for aligning addresses for specific
 1038: addresses. Many computers require that accesses to specific data types
 1039: must only occur at specific addresses; e.g., that cells may only be
 1040: accessed at addresses divisible by 4. Even if a machine allows unaligned
 1041: accesses, it can usually perform aligned accesses faster. 
 1042: 
 1043: For the performance-conscious: alignment operations are usually only
 1044: necessary during the definition of a data structure, not during the
 1045: (more frequent) accesses to it.
 1046: 
 1047: ANS Forth defines no words for character-aligning addresses. This is not
 1048: an oversight, but reflects the fact that addresses that are not
 1049: char-aligned have no use in the standard and therefore will not be
 1050: created.
 1051: 
 1052: The standard guarantees that addresses returned by @code{CREATE}d words
 1053: are cell-aligned; in addition, Gforth guarantees that these addresses
 1054: are aligned for all purposes.
 1055: 
 1056: Note that the standard defines a word @code{char}, which has nothing to
 1057: do with address arithmetic.
 1058: 
 1059: doc-chars
 1060: doc-char+
 1061: doc-cells
 1062: doc-cell+
 1063: doc-align
 1064: doc-aligned
 1065: doc-floats
 1066: doc-float+
 1067: doc-falign
 1068: doc-faligned
 1069: doc-sfloats
 1070: doc-sfloat+
 1071: doc-sfalign
 1072: doc-sfaligned
 1073: doc-dfloats
 1074: doc-dfloat+
 1075: doc-dfalign
 1076: doc-dfaligned
 1077: doc-maxalign
 1078: doc-maxaligned
 1079: doc-cfalign
 1080: doc-cfaligned
 1081: doc-address-unit-bits
 1082: 
 1083: @node Memory block access,  , Address arithmetic, Memory access
 1084: @subsection Memory block access
 1085: 
 1086: doc-move
 1087: doc-erase
 1088: 
 1089: While the previous words work on address units, the rest works on
 1090: characters.
 1091: 
 1092: doc-cmove
 1093: doc-cmove>
 1094: doc-fill
 1095: doc-blank
 1096: 
 1097: @node Control Structures, Locals, Memory access, Words
 1098: @section Control Structures
 1099: 
 1100: Control structures in Forth cannot be used in interpret state, only in
 1101: compile state, i.e., in a colon definition. We do not like this
 1102: limitation, but have not seen a satisfying way around it yet, although
 1103: many schemes have been proposed.
 1104: 
 1105: @menu
 1106: * Selection::                   
 1107: * Simple Loops::                
 1108: * Counted Loops::               
 1109: * Arbitrary control structures::  
 1110: * Calls and returns::           
 1111: * Exception Handling::          
 1112: @end menu
 1113: 
 1114: @node Selection, Simple Loops, Control Structures, Control Structures
 1115: @subsection Selection
 1116: 
 1117: @example
 1118: @var{flag}
 1119: IF
 1120:   @var{code}
 1121: ENDIF
 1122: @end example
 1123: or
 1124: @example
 1125: @var{flag}
 1126: IF
 1127:   @var{code1}
 1128: ELSE
 1129:   @var{code2}
 1130: ENDIF
 1131: @end example
 1132: 
 1133: You can use @code{THEN} instead of @code{ENDIF}. Indeed, @code{THEN} is
 1134: standard, and @code{ENDIF} is not, although it is quite popular. We
 1135: recommend using @code{ENDIF}, because it is less confusing for people
 1136: who also know other languages (and is not prone to reinforcing negative
 1137: prejudices against Forth in these people). Adding @code{ENDIF} to a
 1138: system that only supplies @code{THEN} is simple:
 1139: @example
 1140: : endif   POSTPONE then ; immediate
 1141: @end example
 1142: 
 1143: [According to @cite{Webster's New Encyclopedic Dictionary}, @dfn{then
 1144: (adv.)}  has the following meanings:
 1145: @quotation
 1146: ... 2b: following next after in order ... 3d: as a necessary consequence
 1147: (if you were there, then you saw them).
 1148: @end quotation
 1149: Forth's @code{THEN} has the meaning 2b, whereas @code{THEN} in Pascal
 1150: and many other programming languages has the meaning 3d.]
 1151: 
 1152: Gforth also provides the words @code{?dup-if} and @code{?dup-0=-if}, so
 1153: you can avoid using @code{?dup}. Using these alternatives is also more
 1154: efficient than using @code{?dup}. Definitions in plain standard Forth
 1155: for @code{ENDIF}, @code{?DUP-IF} and @code{?DUP-0=-IF} are provided in
 1156: @file{compat/control.fs}.
 1157: 
 1158: @example
 1159: @var{n}
 1160: CASE
 1161:   @var{n1} OF @var{code1} ENDOF
 1162:   @var{n2} OF @var{code2} ENDOF
 1163:   @dots{}
 1164: ENDCASE
 1165: @end example
 1166: 
 1167: Executes the first @var{codei}, where the @var{ni} is equal to
 1168: @var{n}. A default case can be added by simply writing the code after
 1169: the last @code{ENDOF}. It may use @var{n}, which is on top of the stack,
 1170: but must not consume it.
 1171: 
 1172: @node Simple Loops, Counted Loops, Selection, Control Structures
 1173: @subsection Simple Loops
 1174: 
 1175: @example
 1176: BEGIN
 1177:   @var{code1}
 1178:   @var{flag}
 1179: WHILE
 1180:   @var{code2}
 1181: REPEAT
 1182: @end example
 1183: 
 1184: @var{code1} is executed and @var{flag} is computed. If it is true,
 1185: @var{code2} is executed and the loop is restarted; If @var{flag} is false, execution continues after the @code{REPEAT}.
 1186: 
 1187: @example
 1188: BEGIN
 1189:   @var{code}
 1190:   @var{flag}
 1191: UNTIL
 1192: @end example
 1193: 
 1194: @var{code} is executed. The loop is restarted if @code{flag} is false.
 1195: 
 1196: @example
 1197: BEGIN
 1198:   @var{code}
 1199: AGAIN
 1200: @end example
 1201: 
 1202: This is an endless loop.
 1203: 
 1204: @node Counted Loops, Arbitrary control structures, Simple Loops, Control Structures
 1205: @subsection Counted Loops
 1206: 
 1207: The basic counted loop is:
 1208: @example
 1209: @var{limit} @var{start}
 1210: ?DO
 1211:   @var{body}
 1212: LOOP
 1213: @end example
 1214: 
 1215: This performs one iteration for every integer, starting from @var{start}
 1216: and up to, but excluding @var{limit}. The counter, aka index, can be
 1217: accessed with @code{i}. E.g., the loop
 1218: @example
 1219: 10 0 ?DO
 1220:   i .
 1221: LOOP
 1222: @end example
 1223: prints
 1224: @example
 1225: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
 1226: @end example
 1227: The index of the innermost loop can be accessed with @code{i}, the index
 1228: of the next loop with @code{j}, and the index of the third loop with
 1229: @code{k}.
 1230: 
 1231: The loop control data are kept on the return stack, so there are some
 1232: restrictions on mixing return stack accesses and counted loop
 1233: words. E.g., if you put values on the return stack outside the loop, you
 1234: cannot read them inside the loop. If you put values on the return stack
 1235: within a loop, you have to remove them before the end of the loop and
 1236: before accessing the index of the loop.
 1237: 
 1238: There are several variations on the counted loop:
 1239: 
 1240: @code{LEAVE} leaves the innermost counted loop immediately.
 1241: 
 1242: If @var{start} is greater than @var{limit}, a @code{?DO} loop is entered
 1243: (and @code{LOOP} iterates until they become equal by wrap-around
 1244: arithmetic). This behaviour is usually not what you want. Therefore,
 1245: Gforth offers @code{+DO} and @code{U+DO} (as replacements for
 1246: @code{?DO}), which do not enter the loop if @var{start} is greater than
 1247: @var{limit}; @code{+DO} is for signed loop parameters, @code{U+DO} for
 1248: unsigned loop parameters.
 1249: 
 1250: @code{LOOP} can be replaced with @code{@var{n} +LOOP}; this updates the
 1251: index by @var{n} instead of by 1. The loop is terminated when the border
 1252: between @var{limit-1} and @var{limit} is crossed. E.g.:
 1253: 
 1254: @code{4 0 +DO  i .  2 +LOOP}   prints @code{0 2}
 1255: 
 1256: @code{4 1 +DO  i .  2 +LOOP}   prints @code{1 3}
 1257: 
 1258: The behaviour of @code{@var{n} +LOOP} is peculiar when @var{n} is negative:
 1259: 
 1260: @code{-1 0 ?DO  i .  -1 +LOOP}  prints @code{0 -1}
 1261: 
 1262: @code{ 0 0 ?DO  i .  -1 +LOOP}  prints nothing
 1263: 
 1264: Therefore we recommend avoiding @code{@var{n} +LOOP} with negative
 1265: @var{n}. One alternative is @code{@var{u} -LOOP}, which reduces the
 1266: index by @var{u} each iteration. The loop is terminated when the border
 1267: between @var{limit+1} and @var{limit} is crossed. Gforth also provides
 1268: @code{-DO} and @code{U-DO} for down-counting loops. E.g.:
 1269: 
 1270: @code{-2 0 -DO  i .  1 -LOOP}  prints @code{0 -1}
 1271: 
 1272: @code{-1 0 -DO  i .  1 -LOOP}  prints @code{0}
 1273: 
 1274: @code{ 0 0 -DO  i .  1 -LOOP}  prints nothing
 1275: 
 1276: Unfortunately, @code{+DO}, @code{U+DO}, @code{-DO}, @code{U-DO} and
 1277: @code{-LOOP} are not in the ANS Forth standard. However, an
 1278: implementation for these words that uses only standard words is provided
 1279: in @file{compat/loops.fs}.
 1280: 
 1281: @code{?DO} can also be replaced by @code{DO}. @code{DO} always enters
 1282: the loop, independent of the loop parameters. Do not use @code{DO}, even
 1283: if you know that the loop is entered in any case. Such knowledge tends
 1284: to become invalid during maintenance of a program, and then the
 1285: @code{DO} will make trouble.
 1286: 
 1287: @code{UNLOOP} is used to prepare for an abnormal loop exit, e.g., via
 1288: @code{EXIT}. @code{UNLOOP} removes the loop control parameters from the
 1289: return stack so @code{EXIT} can get to its return address.
 1290: 
 1291: Another counted loop is
 1292: @example
 1293: @var{n}
 1294: FOR
 1295:   @var{body}
 1296: NEXT
 1297: @end example
 1298: This is the preferred loop of native code compiler writers who are too
 1299: lazy to optimize @code{?DO} loops properly. In Gforth, this loop
 1300: iterates @var{n+1} times; @code{i} produces values starting with @var{n}
 1301: and ending with 0. Other Forth systems may behave differently, even if
 1302: they support @code{FOR} loops. To avoid problems, don't use @code{FOR}
 1303: loops.
 1304: 
 1305: @node Arbitrary control structures, Calls and returns, Counted Loops, Control Structures
 1306: @subsection Arbitrary control structures
 1307: 
 1308: ANS Forth permits and supports using control structures in a non-nested
 1309: way. Information about incomplete control structures is stored on the
 1310: control-flow stack. This stack may be implemented on the Forth data
 1311: stack, and this is what we have done in Gforth.
 1312: 
 1313: An @i{orig} entry represents an unresolved forward branch, a @i{dest}
 1314: entry represents a backward branch target. A few words are the basis for
 1315: building any control structure possible (except control structures that
 1316: need storage, like calls, coroutines, and backtracking).
 1317: 
 1318: doc-if
 1319: doc-ahead
 1320: doc-then
 1321: doc-begin
 1322: doc-until
 1323: doc-again
 1324: doc-cs-pick
 1325: doc-cs-roll
 1326: 
 1327: On many systems control-flow stack items take one word, in Gforth they
 1328: currently take three (this may change in the future). Therefore it is a
 1329: really good idea to manipulate the control flow stack with
 1330: @code{cs-pick} and @code{cs-roll}, not with data stack manipulation
 1331: words.
 1332: 
 1333: Some standard control structure words are built from these words:
 1334: 
 1335: doc-else
 1336: doc-while
 1337: doc-repeat
 1338: 
 1339: Gforth adds some more control-structure words:
 1340: 
 1341: doc-endif
 1342: doc-?dup-if
 1343: doc-?dup-0=-if
 1344: 
 1345: Counted loop words constitute a separate group of words:
 1346: 
 1347: doc-?do
 1348: doc-+do
 1349: doc-u+do
 1350: doc--do
 1351: doc-u-do
 1352: doc-do
 1353: doc-for
 1354: doc-loop
 1355: doc-+loop
 1356: doc--loop
 1357: doc-next
 1358: doc-leave
 1359: doc-?leave
 1360: doc-unloop
 1361: doc-done
 1362: 
 1363: The standard does not allow using @code{cs-pick} and @code{cs-roll} on
 1364: @i{do-sys}. Our system allows it, but it's your job to ensure that for
 1365: every @code{?DO} etc. there is exactly one @code{UNLOOP} on any path
 1366: through the definition (@code{LOOP} etc. compile an @code{UNLOOP} on the
 1367: fall-through path). Also, you have to ensure that all @code{LEAVE}s are
 1368: resolved (by using one of the loop-ending words or @code{DONE}).
 1369: 
 1370: Another group of control structure words are
 1371: 
 1372: doc-case
 1373: doc-endcase
 1374: doc-of
 1375: doc-endof
 1376: 
 1377: @i{case-sys} and @i{of-sys} cannot be processed using @code{cs-pick} and
 1378: @code{cs-roll}.
 1379: 
 1380: @subsubsection Programming Style
 1381: 
 1382: In order to ensure readability we recommend that you do not create
 1383: arbitrary control structures directly, but define new control structure
 1384: words for the control structure you want and use these words in your
 1385: program.
 1386: 
 1387: E.g., instead of writing
 1388: 
 1389: @example
 1390: begin
 1391:   ...
 1392: if [ 1 cs-roll ]
 1393:   ...
 1394: again then
 1395: @end example
 1396: 
 1397: we recommend defining control structure words, e.g.,
 1398: 
 1399: @example
 1400: : while ( dest -- orig dest )
 1401:  POSTPONE if
 1402:  1 cs-roll ; immediate
 1403: 
 1404: : repeat ( orig dest -- )
 1405:  POSTPONE again
 1406:  POSTPONE then ; immediate
 1407: @end example
 1408: 
 1409: and then using these to create the control structure:
 1410: 
 1411: @example
 1412: begin
 1413:   ...
 1414: while
 1415:   ...
 1416: repeat
 1417: @end example
 1418: 
 1419: That's much easier to read, isn't it? Of course, @code{REPEAT} and
 1420: @code{WHILE} are predefined, so in this example it would not be
 1421: necessary to define them.
 1422: 
 1423: @node Calls and returns, Exception Handling, Arbitrary control structures, Control Structures
 1424: @subsection Calls and returns
 1425: 
 1426: A definition can be called simply be writing the name of the
 1427: definition. When the end of the definition is reached, it returns. An
 1428: earlier return can be forced using
 1429: 
 1430: doc-exit
 1431: 
 1432: Don't forget to clean up the return stack and @code{UNLOOP} any
 1433: outstanding @code{?DO}...@code{LOOP}s before @code{EXIT}ing. The
 1434: primitive compiled by @code{EXIT} is
 1435: 
 1436: doc-;s
 1437: 
 1438: @node Exception Handling,  , Calls and returns, Control Structures
 1439: @subsection Exception Handling
 1440: 
 1441: doc-catch
 1442: doc-throw
 1443: 
 1444: @node Locals, Defining Words, Control Structures, Words
 1445: @section Locals
 1446: 
 1447: Local variables can make Forth programming more enjoyable and Forth
 1448: programs easier to read. Unfortunately, the locals of ANS Forth are
 1449: laden with restrictions. Therefore, we provide not only the ANS Forth
 1450: locals wordset, but also our own, more powerful locals wordset (we
 1451: implemented the ANS Forth locals wordset through our locals wordset).
 1452: 
 1453: The ideas in this section have also been published in the paper
 1454: @cite{Automatic Scoping of Local Variables} by M. Anton Ertl, presented
 1455: at EuroForth '94; it is available at
 1456: @*@file{http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/papers/ertl94l.ps.gz}.
 1457: 
 1458: @menu
 1459: * Gforth locals::               
 1460: * ANS Forth locals::            
 1461: @end menu
 1462: 
 1463: @node Gforth locals, ANS Forth locals, Locals, Locals
 1464: @subsection Gforth locals
 1465: 
 1466: Locals can be defined with
 1467: 
 1468: @example
 1469: @{ local1 local2 ... -- comment @}
 1470: @end example
 1471: or
 1472: @example
 1473: @{ local1 local2 ... @}
 1474: @end example
 1475: 
 1476: E.g.,
 1477: @example
 1478: : max @{ n1 n2 -- n3 @}
 1479:  n1 n2 > if
 1480:    n1
 1481:  else
 1482:    n2
 1483:  endif ;
 1484: @end example
 1485: 
 1486: The similarity of locals definitions with stack comments is intended. A
 1487: locals definition often replaces the stack comment of a word. The order
 1488: of the locals corresponds to the order in a stack comment and everything
 1489: after the @code{--} is really a comment.
 1490: 
 1491: This similarity has one disadvantage: It is too easy to confuse locals
 1492: declarations with stack comments, causing bugs and making them hard to
 1493: find. However, this problem can be avoided by appropriate coding
 1494: conventions: Do not use both notations in the same program. If you do,
 1495: they should be distinguished using additional means, e.g. by position.
 1496: 
 1497: The name of the local may be preceded by a type specifier, e.g.,
 1498: @code{F:} for a floating point value:
 1499: 
 1500: @example
 1501: : CX* @{ F: Ar F: Ai F: Br F: Bi -- Cr Ci @}
 1502: \ complex multiplication
 1503:  Ar Br f* Ai Bi f* f-
 1504:  Ar Bi f* Ai Br f* f+ ;
 1505: @end example
 1506: 
 1507: Gforth currently supports cells (@code{W:}, @code{W^}), doubles
 1508: (@code{D:}, @code{D^}), floats (@code{F:}, @code{F^}) and characters
 1509: (@code{C:}, @code{C^}) in two flavours: a value-flavoured local (defined
 1510: with @code{W:}, @code{D:} etc.) produces its value and can be changed
 1511: with @code{TO}. A variable-flavoured local (defined with @code{W^} etc.)
 1512: produces its address (which becomes invalid when the variable's scope is
 1513: left). E.g., the standard word @code{emit} can be defined in therms of
 1514: @code{type} like this:
 1515: 
 1516: @example
 1517: : emit @{ C^ char* -- @}
 1518:     char* 1 type ;
 1519: @end example
 1520: 
 1521: A local without type specifier is a @code{W:} local. Both flavours of
 1522: locals are initialized with values from the data or FP stack.
 1523: 
 1524: Currently there is no way to define locals with user-defined data
 1525: structures, but we are working on it.
 1526: 
 1527: Gforth allows defining locals everywhere in a colon definition. This
 1528: poses the following questions:
 1529: 
 1530: @menu
 1531: * Where are locals visible by name?::  
 1532: * How long do locals live?::    
 1533: * Programming Style::           
 1534: * Implementation::              
 1535: @end menu
 1536: 
 1537: @node Where are locals visible by name?, How long do locals live?, Gforth locals, Gforth locals
 1538: @subsubsection Where are locals visible by name?
 1539: 
 1540: Basically, the answer is that locals are visible where you would expect
 1541: it in block-structured languages, and sometimes a little longer. If you
 1542: want to restrict the scope of a local, enclose its definition in
 1543: @code{SCOPE}...@code{ENDSCOPE}.
 1544: 
 1545: doc-scope
 1546: doc-endscope
 1547: 
 1548: These words behave like control structure words, so you can use them
 1549: with @code{CS-PICK} and @code{CS-ROLL} to restrict the scope in
 1550: arbitrary ways.
 1551: 
 1552: If you want a more exact answer to the visibility question, here's the
 1553: basic principle: A local is visible in all places that can only be
 1554: reached through the definition of the local@footnote{In compiler
 1555: construction terminology, all places dominated by the definition of the
 1556: local.}. In other words, it is not visible in places that can be reached
 1557: without going through the definition of the local. E.g., locals defined
 1558: in @code{IF}...@code{ENDIF} are visible until the @code{ENDIF}, locals
 1559: defined in @code{BEGIN}...@code{UNTIL} are visible after the
 1560: @code{UNTIL} (until, e.g., a subsequent @code{ENDSCOPE}).
 1561: 
 1562: The reasoning behind this solution is: We want to have the locals
 1563: visible as long as it is meaningful. The user can always make the
 1564: visibility shorter by using explicit scoping. In a place that can
 1565: only be reached through the definition of a local, the meaning of a
 1566: local name is clear. In other places it is not: How is the local
 1567: initialized at the control flow path that does not contain the
 1568: definition? Which local is meant, if the same name is defined twice in
 1569: two independent control flow paths?
 1570: 
 1571: This should be enough detail for nearly all users, so you can skip the
 1572: rest of this section. If you relly must know all the gory details and
 1573: options, read on.
 1574: 
 1575: In order to implement this rule, the compiler has to know which places
 1576: are unreachable. It knows this automatically after @code{AHEAD},
 1577: @code{AGAIN}, @code{EXIT} and @code{LEAVE}; in other cases (e.g., after
 1578: most @code{THROW}s), you can use the word @code{UNREACHABLE} to tell the
 1579: compiler that the control flow never reaches that place. If
 1580: @code{UNREACHABLE} is not used where it could, the only consequence is
 1581: that the visibility of some locals is more limited than the rule above
 1582: says. If @code{UNREACHABLE} is used where it should not (i.e., if you
 1583: lie to the compiler), buggy code will be produced.
 1584: 
 1585: Another problem with this rule is that at @code{BEGIN}, the compiler
 1586: does not know which locals will be visible on the incoming
 1587: back-edge. All problems discussed in the following are due to this
 1588: ignorance of the compiler (we discuss the problems using @code{BEGIN}
 1589: loops as examples; the discussion also applies to @code{?DO} and other
 1590: loops). Perhaps the most insidious example is:
 1591: @example
 1592: AHEAD
 1593: BEGIN
 1594:   x
 1595: [ 1 CS-ROLL ] THEN
 1596:   @{ x @}
 1597:   ...
 1598: UNTIL
 1599: @end example
 1600: 
 1601: This should be legal according to the visibility rule. The use of
 1602: @code{x} can only be reached through the definition; but that appears
 1603: textually below the use.
 1604: 
 1605: From this example it is clear that the visibility rules cannot be fully
 1606: implemented without major headaches. Our implementation treats common
 1607: cases as advertised and the exceptions are treated in a safe way: The
 1608: compiler makes a reasonable guess about the locals visible after a
 1609: @code{BEGIN}; if it is too pessimistic, the
 1610: user will get a spurious error about the local not being defined; if the
 1611: compiler is too optimistic, it will notice this later and issue a
 1612: warning. In the case above the compiler would complain about @code{x}
 1613: being undefined at its use. You can see from the obscure examples in
 1614: this section that it takes quite unusual control structures to get the
 1615: compiler into trouble, and even then it will often do fine.
 1616: 
 1617: If the @code{BEGIN} is reachable from above, the most optimistic guess
 1618: is that all locals visible before the @code{BEGIN} will also be
 1619: visible after the @code{BEGIN}. This guess is valid for all loops that
 1620: are entered only through the @code{BEGIN}, in particular, for normal
 1621: @code{BEGIN}...@code{WHILE}...@code{REPEAT} and
 1622: @code{BEGIN}...@code{UNTIL} loops and it is implemented in our
 1623: compiler. When the branch to the @code{BEGIN} is finally generated by
 1624: @code{AGAIN} or @code{UNTIL}, the compiler checks the guess and
 1625: warns the user if it was too optimisitic:
 1626: @example
 1627: IF
 1628:   @{ x @}
 1629: BEGIN
 1630:   \ x ? 
 1631: [ 1 cs-roll ] THEN
 1632:   ...
 1633: UNTIL
 1634: @end example
 1635: 
 1636: Here, @code{x} lives only until the @code{BEGIN}, but the compiler
 1637: optimistically assumes that it lives until the @code{THEN}. It notices
 1638: this difference when it compiles the @code{UNTIL} and issues a
 1639: warning. The user can avoid the warning, and make sure that @code{x}
 1640: is not used in the wrong area by using explicit scoping:
 1641: @example
 1642: IF
 1643:   SCOPE
 1644:   @{ x @}
 1645:   ENDSCOPE
 1646: BEGIN
 1647: [ 1 cs-roll ] THEN
 1648:   ...
 1649: UNTIL
 1650: @end example
 1651: 
 1652: Since the guess is optimistic, there will be no spurious error messages
 1653: about undefined locals.
 1654: 
 1655: If the @code{BEGIN} is not reachable from above (e.g., after
 1656: @code{AHEAD} or @code{EXIT}), the compiler cannot even make an
 1657: optimistic guess, as the locals visible after the @code{BEGIN} may be
 1658: defined later. Therefore, the compiler assumes that no locals are
 1659: visible after the @code{BEGIN}. However, the user can use
 1660: @code{ASSUME-LIVE} to make the compiler assume that the same locals are
 1661: visible at the BEGIN as at the point where the top control-flow stack
 1662: item was created.
 1663: 
 1664: doc-assume-live
 1665: 
 1666: E.g.,
 1667: @example
 1668: @{ x @}
 1669: AHEAD
 1670: ASSUME-LIVE
 1671: BEGIN
 1672:   x
 1673: [ 1 CS-ROLL ] THEN
 1674:   ...
 1675: UNTIL
 1676: @end example
 1677: 
 1678: Other cases where the locals are defined before the @code{BEGIN} can be
 1679: handled by inserting an appropriate @code{CS-ROLL} before the
 1680: @code{ASSUME-LIVE} (and changing the control-flow stack manipulation
 1681: behind the @code{ASSUME-LIVE}).
 1682: 
 1683: Cases where locals are defined after the @code{BEGIN} (but should be
 1684: visible immediately after the @code{BEGIN}) can only be handled by
 1685: rearranging the loop. E.g., the ``most insidious'' example above can be
 1686: arranged into:
 1687: @example
 1688: BEGIN
 1689:   @{ x @}
 1690:   ... 0=
 1691: WHILE
 1692:   x
 1693: REPEAT
 1694: @end example
 1695: 
 1696: @node How long do locals live?, Programming Style, Where are locals visible by name?, Gforth locals
 1697: @subsubsection How long do locals live?
 1698: 
 1699: The right answer for the lifetime question would be: A local lives at
 1700: least as long as it can be accessed. For a value-flavoured local this
 1701: means: until the end of its visibility. However, a variable-flavoured
 1702: local could be accessed through its address far beyond its visibility
 1703: scope. Ultimately, this would mean that such locals would have to be
 1704: garbage collected. Since this entails un-Forth-like implementation
 1705: complexities, I adopted the same cowardly solution as some other
 1706: languages (e.g., C): The local lives only as long as it is visible;
 1707: afterwards its address is invalid (and programs that access it
 1708: afterwards are erroneous).
 1709: 
 1710: @node Programming Style, Implementation, How long do locals live?, Gforth locals
 1711: @subsubsection Programming Style
 1712: 
 1713: The freedom to define locals anywhere has the potential to change
 1714: programming styles dramatically. In particular, the need to use the
 1715: return stack for intermediate storage vanishes. Moreover, all stack
 1716: manipulations (except @code{PICK}s and @code{ROLL}s with run-time
 1717: determined arguments) can be eliminated: If the stack items are in the
 1718: wrong order, just write a locals definition for all of them; then
 1719: write the items in the order you want.
 1720: 
 1721: This seems a little far-fetched and eliminating stack manipulations is
 1722: unlikely to become a conscious programming objective. Still, the number
 1723: of stack manipulations will be reduced dramatically if local variables
 1724: are used liberally (e.g., compare @code{max} in @ref{Gforth locals} with
 1725: a traditional implementation of @code{max}).
 1726: 
 1727: This shows one potential benefit of locals: making Forth programs more
 1728: readable. Of course, this benefit will only be realized if the
 1729: programmers continue to honour the principle of factoring instead of
 1730: using the added latitude to make the words longer.
 1731: 
 1732: Using @code{TO} can and should be avoided.  Without @code{TO},
 1733: every value-flavoured local has only a single assignment and many
 1734: advantages of functional languages apply to Forth. I.e., programs are
 1735: easier to analyse, to optimize and to read: It is clear from the
 1736: definition what the local stands for, it does not turn into something
 1737: different later.
 1738: 
 1739: E.g., a definition using @code{TO} might look like this:
 1740: @example
 1741: : strcmp @{ addr1 u1 addr2 u2 -- n @}
 1742:  u1 u2 min 0
 1743:  ?do
 1744:    addr1 c@@ addr2 c@@ -
 1745:    ?dup-if
 1746:      unloop exit
 1747:    then
 1748:    addr1 char+ TO addr1
 1749:    addr2 char+ TO addr2
 1750:  loop
 1751:  u1 u2 - ;
 1752: @end example
 1753: Here, @code{TO} is used to update @code{addr1} and @code{addr2} at
 1754: every loop iteration. @code{strcmp} is a typical example of the
 1755: readability problems of using @code{TO}. When you start reading
 1756: @code{strcmp}, you think that @code{addr1} refers to the start of the
 1757: string. Only near the end of the loop you realize that it is something
 1758: else.
 1759: 
 1760: This can be avoided by defining two locals at the start of the loop that
 1761: are initialized with the right value for the current iteration.
 1762: @example
 1763: : strcmp @{ addr1 u1 addr2 u2 -- n @}
 1764:  addr1 addr2
 1765:  u1 u2 min 0 
 1766:  ?do @{ s1 s2 @}
 1767:    s1 c@@ s2 c@@ -
 1768:    ?dup-if
 1769:      unloop exit
 1770:    then
 1771:    s1 char+ s2 char+
 1772:  loop
 1773:  2drop
 1774:  u1 u2 - ;
 1775: @end example
 1776: Here it is clear from the start that @code{s1} has a different value
 1777: in every loop iteration.
 1778: 
 1779: @node Implementation,  , Programming Style, Gforth locals
 1780: @subsubsection Implementation
 1781: 
 1782: Gforth uses an extra locals stack. The most compelling reason for
 1783: this is that the return stack is not float-aligned; using an extra stack
 1784: also eliminates the problems and restrictions of using the return stack
 1785: as locals stack. Like the other stacks, the locals stack grows toward
 1786: lower addresses. A few primitives allow an efficient implementation:
 1787: 
 1788: doc-@local#
 1789: doc-f@local#
 1790: doc-laddr#
 1791: doc-lp+!#
 1792: doc-lp!
 1793: doc->l
 1794: doc-f>l
 1795: 
 1796: In addition to these primitives, some specializations of these
 1797: primitives for commonly occurring inline arguments are provided for
 1798: efficiency reasons, e.g., @code{@@local0} as specialization of
 1799: @code{@@local#} for the inline argument 0. The following compiling words
 1800: compile the right specialized version, or the general version, as
 1801: appropriate:
 1802: 
 1803: doc-compile-@local
 1804: doc-compile-f@local
 1805: doc-compile-lp+!
 1806: 
 1807: Combinations of conditional branches and @code{lp+!#} like
 1808: @code{?branch-lp+!#} (the locals pointer is only changed if the branch
 1809: is taken) are provided for efficiency and correctness in loops.
 1810: 
 1811: A special area in the dictionary space is reserved for keeping the
 1812: local variable names. @code{@{} switches the dictionary pointer to this
 1813: area and @code{@}} switches it back and generates the locals
 1814: initializing code. @code{W:} etc.@ are normal defining words. This
 1815: special area is cleared at the start of every colon definition.
 1816: 
 1817: A special feature of Gforth's dictionary is used to implement the
 1818: definition of locals without type specifiers: every wordlist (aka
 1819: vocabulary) has its own methods for searching
 1820: etc. (@pxref{Wordlists}). For the present purpose we defined a wordlist
 1821: with a special search method: When it is searched for a word, it
 1822: actually creates that word using @code{W:}. @code{@{} changes the search
 1823: order to first search the wordlist containing @code{@}}, @code{W:} etc.,
 1824: and then the wordlist for defining locals without type specifiers.
 1825: 
 1826: The lifetime rules support a stack discipline within a colon
 1827: definition: The lifetime of a local is either nested with other locals
 1828: lifetimes or it does not overlap them.
 1829: 
 1830: At @code{BEGIN}, @code{IF}, and @code{AHEAD} no code for locals stack
 1831: pointer manipulation is generated. Between control structure words
 1832: locals definitions can push locals onto the locals stack. @code{AGAIN}
 1833: is the simplest of the other three control flow words. It has to
 1834: restore the locals stack depth of the corresponding @code{BEGIN}
 1835: before branching. The code looks like this:
 1836: @format
 1837: @code{lp+!#} current-locals-size @minus{} dest-locals-size
 1838: @code{branch} <begin>
 1839: @end format
 1840: 
 1841: @code{UNTIL} is a little more complicated: If it branches back, it
 1842: must adjust the stack just like @code{AGAIN}. But if it falls through,
 1843: the locals stack must not be changed. The compiler generates the
 1844: following code:
 1845: @format
 1846: @code{?branch-lp+!#} <begin> current-locals-size @minus{} dest-locals-size
 1847: @end format
 1848: The locals stack pointer is only adjusted if the branch is taken.
 1849: 
 1850: @code{THEN} can produce somewhat inefficient code:
 1851: @format
 1852: @code{lp+!#} current-locals-size @minus{} orig-locals-size
 1853: <orig target>:
 1854: @code{lp+!#} orig-locals-size @minus{} new-locals-size
 1855: @end format
 1856: The second @code{lp+!#} adjusts the locals stack pointer from the
 1857: level at the @var{orig} point to the level after the @code{THEN}. The
 1858: first @code{lp+!#} adjusts the locals stack pointer from the current
 1859: level to the level at the orig point, so the complete effect is an
 1860: adjustment from the current level to the right level after the
 1861: @code{THEN}.
 1862: 
 1863: In a conventional Forth implementation a dest control-flow stack entry
 1864: is just the target address and an orig entry is just the address to be
 1865: patched. Our locals implementation adds a wordlist to every orig or dest
 1866: item. It is the list of locals visible (or assumed visible) at the point
 1867: described by the entry. Our implementation also adds a tag to identify
 1868: the kind of entry, in particular to differentiate between live and dead
 1869: (reachable and unreachable) orig entries.
 1870: 
 1871: A few unusual operations have to be performed on locals wordlists:
 1872: 
 1873: doc-common-list
 1874: doc-sub-list?
 1875: doc-list-size
 1876: 
 1877: Several features of our locals wordlist implementation make these
 1878: operations easy to implement: The locals wordlists are organised as
 1879: linked lists; the tails of these lists are shared, if the lists
 1880: contain some of the same locals; and the address of a name is greater
 1881: than the address of the names behind it in the list.
 1882: 
 1883: Another important implementation detail is the variable
 1884: @code{dead-code}. It is used by @code{BEGIN} and @code{THEN} to
 1885: determine if they can be reached directly or only through the branch
 1886: that they resolve. @code{dead-code} is set by @code{UNREACHABLE},
 1887: @code{AHEAD}, @code{EXIT} etc., and cleared at the start of a colon
 1888: definition, by @code{BEGIN} and usually by @code{THEN}.
 1889: 
 1890: Counted loops are similar to other loops in most respects, but
 1891: @code{LEAVE} requires special attention: It performs basically the same
 1892: service as @code{AHEAD}, but it does not create a control-flow stack
 1893: entry. Therefore the information has to be stored elsewhere;
 1894: traditionally, the information was stored in the target fields of the
 1895: branches created by the @code{LEAVE}s, by organizing these fields into a
 1896: linked list. Unfortunately, this clever trick does not provide enough
 1897: space for storing our extended control flow information. Therefore, we
 1898: introduce another stack, the leave stack. It contains the control-flow
 1899: stack entries for all unresolved @code{LEAVE}s.
 1900: 
 1901: Local names are kept until the end of the colon definition, even if
 1902: they are no longer visible in any control-flow path. In a few cases
 1903: this may lead to increased space needs for the locals name area, but
 1904: usually less than reclaiming this space would cost in code size.
 1905: 
 1906: 
 1907: @node ANS Forth locals,  , Gforth locals, Locals
 1908: @subsection ANS Forth locals
 1909: 
 1910: The ANS Forth locals wordset does not define a syntax for locals, but
 1911: words that make it possible to define various syntaxes. One of the
 1912: possible syntaxes is a subset of the syntax we used in the Gforth locals
 1913: wordset, i.e.:
 1914: 
 1915: @example
 1916: @{ local1 local2 ... -- comment @}
 1917: @end example
 1918: or
 1919: @example
 1920: @{ local1 local2 ... @}
 1921: @end example
 1922: 
 1923: The order of the locals corresponds to the order in a stack comment. The
 1924: restrictions are:
 1925: 
 1926: @itemize @bullet
 1927: @item
 1928: Locals can only be cell-sized values (no type specifiers are allowed).
 1929: @item
 1930: Locals can be defined only outside control structures.
 1931: @item
 1932: Locals can interfere with explicit usage of the return stack. For the
 1933: exact (and long) rules, see the standard. If you don't use return stack
 1934: accessing words in a definition using locals, you will be all right. The
 1935: purpose of this rule is to make locals implementation on the return
 1936: stack easier.
 1937: @item
 1938: The whole definition must be in one line.
 1939: @end itemize
 1940: 
 1941: Locals defined in this way behave like @code{VALUE}s (@xref{Simple
 1942: Defining Words}). I.e., they are initialized from the stack. Using their
 1943: name produces their value. Their value can be changed using @code{TO}.
 1944: 
 1945: Since this syntax is supported by Gforth directly, you need not do
 1946: anything to use it. If you want to port a program using this syntax to
 1947: another ANS Forth system, use @file{compat/anslocal.fs} to implement the
 1948: syntax on the other system.
 1949: 
 1950: Note that a syntax shown in the standard, section A.13 looks
 1951: similar, but is quite different in having the order of locals
 1952: reversed. Beware!
 1953: 
 1954: The ANS Forth locals wordset itself consists of the following word
 1955: 
 1956: doc-(local)
 1957: 
 1958: The ANS Forth locals extension wordset defines a syntax, but it is so
 1959: awful that we strongly recommend not to use it. We have implemented this
 1960: syntax to make porting to Gforth easy, but do not document it here. The
 1961: problem with this syntax is that the locals are defined in an order
 1962: reversed with respect to the standard stack comment notation, making
 1963: programs harder to read, and easier to misread and miswrite. The only
 1964: merit of this syntax is that it is easy to implement using the ANS Forth
 1965: locals wordset.
 1966: 
 1967: @node Defining Words, Tokens for Words, Locals, Words
 1968: @section Defining Words
 1969: 
 1970: @menu
 1971: * Simple Defining Words::       
 1972: * Colon Definitions::           
 1973: * User-defined Defining Words::  
 1974: * Supplying names::             
 1975: * Interpretation and Compilation Semantics::  
 1976: @end menu
 1977: 
 1978: @node Simple Defining Words, Colon Definitions, Defining Words, Defining Words
 1979: @subsection Simple Defining Words
 1980: 
 1981: doc-constant
 1982: doc-2constant
 1983: doc-fconstant
 1984: doc-variable
 1985: doc-2variable
 1986: doc-fvariable
 1987: doc-create
 1988: doc-user
 1989: doc-value
 1990: doc-to
 1991: doc-defer
 1992: doc-is
 1993: 
 1994: @node Colon Definitions, User-defined Defining Words, Simple Defining Words, Defining Words
 1995: @subsection Colon Definitions
 1996: 
 1997: @example
 1998: : name ( ... -- ... )
 1999:     word1 word2 word3 ;
 2000: @end example
 2001: 
 2002: creates a word called @code{name}, that, upon execution, executes
 2003: @code{word1 word2 word3}. @code{name} is a @dfn{(colon) definition}.
 2004: 
 2005: The explanation above is somewhat superficial. @xref{Interpretation and
 2006: Compilation Semantics} for an in-depth discussion of some of the issues
 2007: involved.
 2008: 
 2009: doc-:
 2010: doc-;
 2011: 
 2012: @node User-defined Defining Words, Supplying names, Colon Definitions, Defining Words
 2013: @subsection User-defined Defining Words
 2014: 
 2015: You can create new defining words simply by wrapping defining-time code
 2016: around existing defining words and putting the sequence in a colon
 2017: definition.
 2018: 
 2019: If you want the words defined with your defining words to behave
 2020: differently from words defined with standard defining words, you can
 2021: write your defining word like this:
 2022: 
 2023: @example
 2024: : def-word ( "name" -- )
 2025:     Create @var{code1}
 2026: DOES> ( ... -- ... )
 2027:     @var{code2} ;
 2028: 
 2029: def-word name
 2030: @end example
 2031: 
 2032: Technically, this fragment defines a defining word @code{def-word}, and
 2033: a word @code{name}; when you execute @code{name}, the address of the
 2034: body of @code{name} is put on the data stack and @var{code2} is executed
 2035: (the address of the body of @code{name} is the address @code{HERE}
 2036: returns immediately after the @code{CREATE}).
 2037: 
 2038: In other words, if you make the following definitions:
 2039: 
 2040: @example
 2041: : def-word1 ( "name" -- )
 2042:     Create @var{code1} ;
 2043: 
 2044: : action1 ( ... -- ... )
 2045:     @var{code2} ;
 2046: 
 2047: def-word name1
 2048: @end example
 2049: 
 2050: Using @code{name1 action1} is equivalent to using @code{name}.
 2051: 
 2052: E.g., you can implement @code{Constant} in this way:
 2053: 
 2054: @example
 2055: : constant ( w "name" -- )
 2056:     create ,
 2057: DOES> ( -- w )
 2058:     @@ ;
 2059: @end example
 2060: 
 2061: When you create a constant with @code{5 constant five}, first a new word
 2062: @code{five} is created, then the value 5 is laid down in the body of
 2063: @code{five} with @code{,}. When @code{five} is invoked, the address of
 2064: the body is put on the stack, and @code{@@} retrieves the value 5.
 2065: 
 2066: In the example above the stack comment after the @code{DOES>} specifies
 2067: the stack effect of the defined words, not the stack effect of the
 2068: following code (the following code expects the address of the body on
 2069: the top of stack, which is not reflected in the stack comment). This is
 2070: the convention that I use and recommend (it clashes a bit with using
 2071: locals declarations for stack effect specification, though).
 2072: 
 2073: @subsubsection Applications of @code{CREATE..DOES>}
 2074: 
 2075: You may wonder how to use this feature. Here are some usage patterns:
 2076: 
 2077: When you see a sequence of code occurring several times, and you can
 2078: identify a meaning, you will factor it out as a colon definition. When
 2079: you see similar colon definitions, you can factor them using
 2080: @code{CREATE..DOES>}. E.g., an assembler usually defines several words
 2081: that look very similar:
 2082: @example
 2083: : ori, ( reg-taget reg-source n -- )
 2084:     0 asm-reg-reg-imm ;
 2085: : andi, ( reg-taget reg-source n -- )
 2086:     1 asm-reg-reg-imm ;
 2087: @end example
 2088: 
 2089: This could be factored with:
 2090: @example
 2091: : reg-reg-imm ( op-code -- )
 2092:     create ,
 2093: DOES> ( reg-taget reg-source n -- )
 2094:     @@ asm-reg-reg-imm ;
 2095: 
 2096: 0 reg-reg-imm ori,
 2097: 1 reg-reg-imm andi,
 2098: @end example
 2099: 
 2100: Another view of @code{CREATE..DOES>} is to consider it as a crude way to
 2101: supply a part of the parameters for a word (known as @dfn{currying} in
 2102: the functional language community). E.g., @code{+} needs two
 2103: parameters. Creating versions of @code{+} with one parameter fixed can
 2104: be done like this:
 2105: @example
 2106: : curry+ ( n1 -- )
 2107:     create ,
 2108: DOES> ( n2 -- n1+n2 )
 2109:     @@ + ;
 2110: 
 2111:  3 curry+ 3+
 2112: -2 curry+ 2-
 2113: @end example
 2114: 
 2115: @subsubsection The gory details of @code{CREATE..DOES>}
 2116: 
 2117: doc-does>
 2118: 
 2119: This means that you need not use @code{CREATE} and @code{DOES>} in the
 2120: same definition; E.g., you can put the @code{DOES>}-part in a separate
 2121: definition. This allows us to, e.g., select among different DOES>-parts:
 2122: @example
 2123: : does1 
 2124: DOES> ( ... -- ... )
 2125:     ... ;
 2126: 
 2127: : does2
 2128: DOES> ( ... -- ... )
 2129:     ... ;
 2130: 
 2131: : def-word ( ... -- ... )
 2132:     create ...
 2133:     IF
 2134:        does1
 2135:     ELSE
 2136:        does2
 2137:     ENDIF ;
 2138: @end example
 2139: 
 2140: In a standard program you can apply a @code{DOES>}-part only if the last
 2141: word was defined with @code{CREATE}. In Gforth, the @code{DOES>}-part
 2142: will override the behaviour of the last word defined in any case. In a
 2143: standard program, you can use @code{DOES>} only in a colon
 2144: definition. In Gforth, you can also use it in interpretation state, in a
 2145: kind of one-shot mode:
 2146: @example
 2147: CREATE name ( ... -- ... )
 2148:   @var{initialization}
 2149: DOES>
 2150:   @var{code} ;
 2151: @end example
 2152: This is equivalwent to the standard
 2153: @example
 2154: :noname
 2155: DOES>
 2156:     @var{code} ;
 2157: CREATE name EXECUTE ( ... -- ... )
 2158:     @var{initialization}
 2159: @end example
 2160: 
 2161: You can get the address of the body of a word with
 2162: 
 2163: doc->body
 2164: 
 2165: @node Supplying names, Interpretation and Compilation Semantics, User-defined Defining Words, Defining Words
 2166: @subsection Supplying names for the defined words
 2167: 
 2168: By default, defining words take the names for the defined words from the
 2169: input stream. Sometimes you want to supply the name from a string. You
 2170: can do this with
 2171: 
 2172: doc-nextname
 2173: 
 2174: E.g.,
 2175: 
 2176: @example
 2177: s" foo" nextname create
 2178: @end example
 2179: is equivalent to
 2180: @example
 2181: create foo
 2182: @end example
 2183: 
 2184: Sometimes you want to define a word without a name. You can do this with
 2185: 
 2186: doc-noname
 2187: 
 2188: To make any use of the newly defined word, you need its execution
 2189: token. You can get it with
 2190: 
 2191: doc-lastxt
 2192: 
 2193: E.g., you can initialize a deferred word with an anonymous colon
 2194: definition:
 2195: @example
 2196: Defer deferred
 2197: noname : ( ... -- ... )
 2198:   ... ;
 2199: lastxt IS deferred
 2200: @end example
 2201: 
 2202: @code{lastxt} also works when the last word was not defined as
 2203: @code{noname}. 
 2204: 
 2205: The standard has also recognized the need for anonymous words and
 2206: provides
 2207: 
 2208: doc-:noname
 2209: 
 2210: This leaves the execution token for the word on the stack after the
 2211: closing @code{;}. You can rewrite the last example with @code{:noname}:
 2212: @example
 2213: Defer deferred
 2214: :noname ( ... -- ... )
 2215:   ... ;
 2216: IS deferred
 2217: @end example
 2218: 
 2219: @node Interpretation and Compilation Semantics,  , Supplying names, Defining Words
 2220: @subsection Interpretation and Compilation Semantics
 2221: 
 2222: The @dfn{interpretation semantics} of a word are what the text
 2223: interpreter does when it encounters the word in interpret state. It also
 2224: appears in some other contexts, e.g., the execution token returned by
 2225: @code{' @var{word}} identifies the interpretation semantics of
 2226: @var{word} (in other words, @code{' @var{word} execute} is equivalent to
 2227: interpret-state text interpretation of @code{@var{word}}).
 2228: 
 2229: The @dfn{compilation semantics} of a word are what the text interpreter
 2230: does when it encounters the word in compile state. It also appears in
 2231: other contexts, e.g, @code{POSTPONE @var{word}} compiles@footnote{In
 2232: standard terminology, ``appends to the current definition''.} the
 2233: compilation semantics of @var{word}.
 2234: 
 2235: The standard also talks about @dfn{execution semantics}. They are used
 2236: only for defining the interpretation and compilation semantics of many
 2237: words. By default, the interpretation semantics of a word are to
 2238: @code{execute} its execution semantics, and the compilation semantics of
 2239: a word are to @code{compile,} its execution semantics.@footnote{In
 2240: standard terminology: The default interpretation semantics are its
 2241: execution semantics; the default compilation semantics are to append its
 2242: execution semantics to the execution semantics of the current
 2243: definition.}
 2244: 
 2245: You can change the compilation semantics into @code{execute}ing the
 2246: execution semantics with
 2247: 
 2248: doc-immediate
 2249: 
 2250: You can remove the interpretation semantics of a word with
 2251: 
 2252: doc-compile-only
 2253: doc-restrict
 2254: 
 2255: Note that ticking (@code{'}) compile-only words gives an error
 2256: (``Interpreting a compile-only word'').
 2257: 
 2258: Gforth also allows you to define words with arbitrary combinations of
 2259: interpretation and compilation semantics.
 2260: 
 2261: doc-interpret/compile:
 2262: 
 2263: This feature was introduced for implementing @code{TO} and @code{S"}. I
 2264: recommend that you do not define such words, as cute as they may be:
 2265: they make it hard to get at both parts of the word in some contexts.
 2266: E.g., assume you want to get an execution token for the compilation
 2267: part. Instead, define two words, one that embodies the interpretation
 2268: part, and one that embodies the compilation part.
 2269: 
 2270: There is, however, a potentially useful application of this feature:
 2271: Providing differing implementations for the default semantics. While
 2272: this introduces redundancy and is therefore usually a bad idea, a
 2273: performance improvement may be worth the trouble. E.g., consider the
 2274: word @code{foobar}:
 2275: 
 2276: @example
 2277: : foobar
 2278:     foo bar ;
 2279: @end example
 2280: 
 2281: Let us assume that @code{foobar} is called so frequently that the
 2282: calling overhead would take a significant amount of the run-time. We can
 2283: optimize it with @code{interpret/compile:}:
 2284: 
 2285: @example
 2286: :noname
 2287:    foo bar ;
 2288: :noname
 2289:    POSTPONE foo POSTPONE bar ;
 2290: interpret/compile: foobar
 2291: @end example
 2292: 
 2293: This definition has the same interpretation semantics and essentially
 2294: the same compilation semantics as the simple definition of
 2295: @code{foobar}, but the implementation of the compilation semantics is
 2296: more efficient with respect to run-time.
 2297: 
 2298: Some people try to use state-smart words to emulate the feature provided
 2299: by @code{interpret/compile:} (words are state-smart if they check
 2300: @code{STATE} during execution). E.g., they would try to code
 2301: @code{foobar} like this:
 2302: 
 2303: @example
 2304: : foobar
 2305:   STATE @@
 2306:   IF ( compilation state )
 2307:     POSTPONE foo POSTPONE bar
 2308:   ELSE
 2309:     foo bar
 2310:   ENDIF ; immediate
 2311: @end example
 2312: 
 2313: While this works if @code{foobar} is processed only by the text
 2314: interpreter, it does not work in other contexts (like @code{'} or
 2315: @code{POSTPONE}). E.g., @code{' foobar} will produce an execution token
 2316: for a state-smart word, not for the interpretation semantics of the
 2317: original @code{foobar}; when you execute this execution token (directly
 2318: with @code{EXECUTE} or indirectly through @code{COMPILE,}) in compile
 2319: state, the result will not be what you expected (i.e., it will not
 2320: perform @code{foo bar}). State-smart words are a bad idea. Simply don't
 2321: write them!
 2322: 
 2323: It is also possible to write defining words that define words with
 2324: arbitrary combinations of interpretation and compilation semantics (or,
 2325: preferably, arbitrary combinations of implementations of the default
 2326: semantics). In general, this looks like:
 2327: 
 2328: @example
 2329: : def-word
 2330:     create-interpret/compile
 2331:     @var{code1}
 2332: interpretation>
 2333:     @var{code2}
 2334: <interpretation
 2335: compilation>
 2336:     @var{code3}
 2337: <compilation ;
 2338: @end example
 2339: 
 2340: For a @var{word} defined with @code{def-word}, the interpretation
 2341: semantics are to push the address of the body of @var{word} and perform
 2342: @var{code2}, and the compilation semantics are to push the address of
 2343: the body of @var{word} and perform @var{code3}. E.g., @code{constant}
 2344: can also be defined like this:
 2345: 
 2346: @example
 2347: : constant ( n "name" -- )
 2348:     create-interpret/compile
 2349:     ,
 2350: interpretation> ( -- n )
 2351:     @@
 2352: <interpretation
 2353: compilation> ( compilation. -- ; run-time. -- n )
 2354:     @@ postpone literal
 2355: <compilation ;
 2356: @end example
 2357: 
 2358: doc-create-interpret/compile
 2359: doc-interpretation>
 2360: doc-<interpretation
 2361: doc-compilation>
 2362: doc-<compilation
 2363: 
 2364: Note that words defined with @code{interpret/compile:} and
 2365: @code{create-interpret/compile} have an extended header structure that
 2366: differs from other words; however, unless you try to access them with
 2367: plain address arithmetic, you should not notice this. Words for
 2368: accessing the header structure usually know how to deal with this; e.g.,
 2369: @code{' word >body} also gives you the body of a word created with
 2370: @code{create-interpret/compile}.
 2371: 
 2372: @node Tokens for Words, Wordlists, Defining Words, Words
 2373: @section Tokens for Words
 2374: 
 2375: This chapter describes the creation and use of tokens that represent
 2376: words on the stack (and in data space).
 2377: 
 2378: Named words have interpretation and compilation semantics. Unnamed words
 2379: just have execution semantics.
 2380: 
 2381: An @dfn{execution token} represents the execution semantics of an
 2382: unnamed word. An execution token occupies one cell. As explained in
 2383: section @ref{Supplying names}, the execution token of the last words
 2384: defined can be produced with
 2385: 
 2386: short-lastxt
 2387: 
 2388: You can perform the semantics represented by an execution token with
 2389: doc-execute
 2390: You can compile the word with
 2391: doc-compile,
 2392: 
 2393: In Gforth, the abstract data type @emph{execution token} is implemented
 2394: as CFA (code field address).
 2395: 
 2396: The interpretation semantics of a named word are also represented by an
 2397: execution token. You can get it with
 2398: 
 2399: doc-[']
 2400: doc-'
 2401: 
 2402: For literals, you use @code{'} in interpreted code and @code{[']} in
 2403: compiled code. Gforth's @code{'} and @code{[']} behave somewhat unusual
 2404: by complaining about compile-only words. To get an execution token for a
 2405: compiling word @var{X}, use @code{COMP' @var{X} drop} or @code{[COMP']
 2406: @var{X} drop}.
 2407: 
 2408: The compilation semantics are represented by a @dfn{compilation token}
 2409: consisting of two cells: @var{w xt}. The top cell @var{xt} is an
 2410: execution token. The compilation semantics represented by the
 2411: compilation token can be performed with @code{execute}, which consumes
 2412: the whole compilation token, with an additional stack effect determined
 2413: by the represented compilation semantics.
 2414: 
 2415: doc-[comp']
 2416: doc-comp'
 2417: 
 2418: You can compile the compilation semantics with @code{postpone,}. I.e.,
 2419: @code{COMP' @var{word} POSTPONE,} is equivalent to @code{POSTPONE
 2420: @var{word}}.
 2421: 
 2422: doc-postpone,
 2423: 
 2424: At present, the @var{w} part of a compilation token is an execution
 2425: token, and the @var{xt} part represents either @code{execute} or
 2426: @code{compile,}. However, don't rely on that kowledge, unless necessary;
 2427: we may introduce unusual compilation tokens in the future (e.g.,
 2428: compilation tokens representing the compilation semantics of literals).
 2429: 
 2430: Named words are also represented by the @dfn{name token}. The abstract
 2431: data type @emph{name token} is implemented as NFA (name field address).
 2432: 
 2433: doc-find-name
 2434: doc-name>int
 2435: doc-name?int
 2436: doc-name>comp
 2437: doc-name>string
 2438: 
 2439: @node Wordlists, Files, Tokens for Words, Words
 2440: @section Wordlists
 2441: 
 2442: @node Files, Blocks, Wordlists, Words
 2443: @section Files
 2444: 
 2445: @node Blocks, Other I/O, Files, Words
 2446: @section Blocks
 2447: 
 2448: @node Other I/O, Programming Tools, Blocks, Words
 2449: @section Other I/O
 2450: 
 2451: @node Programming Tools, Assembler and Code words, Other I/O, Words
 2452: @section Programming Tools
 2453: 
 2454: @menu
 2455: * Debugging::                   Simple and quick.
 2456: * Assertions::                  Making your programs self-checking.
 2457: @end menu
 2458: 
 2459: @node Debugging, Assertions, Programming Tools, Programming Tools
 2460: @subsection Debugging
 2461: 
 2462: The simple debugging aids provided in @file{debugging.fs}
 2463: are meant to support a different style of debugging than the
 2464: tracing/stepping debuggers used in languages with long turn-around
 2465: times.
 2466: 
 2467: A much better (faster) way in fast-compilig languages is to add
 2468: printing code at well-selected places, let the program run, look at
 2469: the output, see where things went wrong, add more printing code, etc.,
 2470: until the bug is found.
 2471: 
 2472: The word @code{~~} is easy to insert. It just prints debugging
 2473: information (by default the source location and the stack contents). It
 2474: is also easy to remove (@kbd{C-x ~} in the Emacs Forth mode to
 2475: query-replace them with nothing). The deferred words
 2476: @code{printdebugdata} and @code{printdebugline} control the output of
 2477: @code{~~}. The default source location output format works well with
 2478: Emacs' compilation mode, so you can step through the program at the
 2479: source level using @kbd{C-x `} (the advantage over a stepping debugger
 2480: is that you can step in any direction and you know where the crash has
 2481: happened or where the strange data has occurred).
 2482: 
 2483: Note that the default actions clobber the contents of the pictured
 2484: numeric output string, so you should not use @code{~~}, e.g., between
 2485: @code{<#} and @code{#>}.
 2486: 
 2487: doc-~~
 2488: doc-printdebugdata
 2489: doc-printdebugline
 2490: 
 2491: @node Assertions,  , Debugging, Programming Tools
 2492: @subsection Assertions
 2493: 
 2494: It is a good idea to make your programs self-checking, in particular, if
 2495: you use an assumption (e.g., that a certain field of a data structure is
 2496: never zero) that may become wrong during maintenance. Gforth supports
 2497: assertions for this purpose. They are used like this:
 2498: 
 2499: @example
 2500: assert( @var{flag} )
 2501: @end example
 2502: 
 2503: The code between @code{assert(} and @code{)} should compute a flag, that
 2504: should be true if everything is alright and false otherwise. It should
 2505: not change anything else on the stack. The overall stack effect of the
 2506: assertion is @code{( -- )}. E.g.
 2507: 
 2508: @example
 2509: assert( 1 1 + 2 = ) \ what we learn in school
 2510: assert( dup 0<> ) \ assert that the top of stack is not zero
 2511: assert( false ) \ this code should not be reached
 2512: @end example
 2513: 
 2514: The need for assertions is different at different times. During
 2515: debugging, we want more checking, in production we sometimes care more
 2516: for speed. Therefore, assertions can be turned off, i.e., the assertion
 2517: becomes a comment. Depending on the importance of an assertion and the
 2518: time it takes to check it, you may want to turn off some assertions and
 2519: keep others turned on. Gforth provides several levels of assertions for
 2520: this purpose:
 2521: 
 2522: doc-assert0(
 2523: doc-assert1(
 2524: doc-assert2(
 2525: doc-assert3(
 2526: doc-assert(
 2527: doc-)
 2528: 
 2529: @code{Assert(} is the same as @code{assert1(}. The variable
 2530: @code{assert-level} specifies the highest assertions that are turned
 2531: on. I.e., at the default @code{assert-level} of one, @code{assert0(} and
 2532: @code{assert1(} assertions perform checking, while @code{assert2(} and
 2533: @code{assert3(} assertions are treated as comments.
 2534: 
 2535: Note that the @code{assert-level} is evaluated at compile-time, not at
 2536: run-time. I.e., you cannot turn assertions on or off at run-time, you
 2537: have to set the @code{assert-level} appropriately before compiling a
 2538: piece of code. You can compile several pieces of code at several
 2539: @code{assert-level}s (e.g., a trusted library at level 1 and newly
 2540: written code at level 3).
 2541: 
 2542: doc-assert-level
 2543: 
 2544: If an assertion fails, a message compatible with Emacs' compilation mode
 2545: is produced and the execution is aborted (currently with @code{ABORT"}.
 2546: If there is interest, we will introduce a special throw code. But if you
 2547: intend to @code{catch} a specific condition, using @code{throw} is
 2548: probably more appropriate than an assertion).
 2549: 
 2550: @node Assembler and Code words, Threading Words, Programming Tools, Words
 2551: @section Assembler and Code words
 2552: 
 2553: Gforth provides some words for defining primitives (words written in
 2554: machine code), and for defining the the machine-code equivalent of
 2555: @code{DOES>}-based defining words. However, the machine-independent
 2556: nature of Gforth poses a few problems: First of all, Gforth runs on
 2557: several architectures, so it can provide no standard assembler. What's
 2558: worse is that the register allocation not only depends on the processor,
 2559: but also on the @code{gcc} version and options used.
 2560: 
 2561: The words that Gforth offers encapsulate some system dependences (e.g., the
 2562: header structure), so a system-independent assembler may be used in
 2563: Gforth. If you do not have an assembler, you can compile machine code
 2564: directly with @code{,} and @code{c,}.
 2565: 
 2566: doc-assembler
 2567: doc-code
 2568: doc-end-code
 2569: doc-;code
 2570: doc-flush-icache
 2571: 
 2572: If @code{flush-icache} does not work correctly, @code{code} words
 2573: etc. will not work (reliably), either.
 2574: 
 2575: These words are rarely used. Therefore they reside in @code{code.fs},
 2576: which is usually not loaded (except @code{flush-icache}, which is always
 2577: present). You can load them with @code{require code.fs}.
 2578: 
 2579: In the assembly code you will want to refer to the inner interpreter's
 2580: registers (e.g., the data stack pointer) and you may want to use other
 2581: registers for temporary storage. Unfortunately, the register allocation
 2582: is installation-dependent.
 2583: 
 2584: The easiest solution is to use explicit register declarations
 2585: (@pxref{Explicit Reg Vars, , Variables in Specified Registers, gcc.info,
 2586: GNU C Manual}) for all of the inner interpreter's registers: You have to
 2587: compile Gforth with @code{-DFORCE_REG} (configure option
 2588: @code{--enable-force-reg}) and the appropriate declarations must be
 2589: present in the @code{machine.h} file (see @code{mips.h} for an example;
 2590: you can find a full list of all declarable register symbols with
 2591: @code{grep register engine.c}). If you give explicit registers to all
 2592: variables that are declared at the beginning of @code{engine()}, you
 2593: should be able to use the other caller-saved registers for temporary
 2594: storage. Alternatively, you can use the @code{gcc} option
 2595: @code{-ffixed-REG} (@pxref{Code Gen Options, , Options for Code
 2596: Generation Conventions, gcc.info, GNU C Manual}) to reserve a register
 2597: (however, this restriction on register allocation may slow Gforth
 2598: significantly).
 2599: 
 2600: If this solution is not viable (e.g., because @code{gcc} does not allow
 2601: you to explicitly declare all the registers you need), you have to find
 2602: out by looking at the code where the inner interpreter's registers
 2603: reside and which registers can be used for temporary storage. You can
 2604: get an assembly listing of the engine's code with @code{make engine.s}.
 2605: 
 2606: In any case, it is good practice to abstract your assembly code from the
 2607: actual register allocation. E.g., if the data stack pointer resides in
 2608: register @code{$17}, create an alias for this register called @code{sp},
 2609: and use that in your assembly code.
 2610: 
 2611: Another option for implementing normal and defining words efficiently
 2612: is: adding the wanted functionality to the source of Gforth. For normal
 2613: words you just have to edit @file{primitives} (@pxref{Automatic
 2614: Generation}), defining words (equivalent to @code{;CODE} words, for fast
 2615: defined words) may require changes in @file{engine.c}, @file{kernal.fs},
 2616: @file{prims2x.fs}, and possibly @file{cross.fs}.
 2617: 
 2618: 
 2619: @node Threading Words,  , Assembler and Code words, Words
 2620: @section Threading Words
 2621: 
 2622: These words provide access to code addresses and other threading stuff
 2623: in Gforth (and, possibly, other interpretive Forths). It more or less
 2624: abstracts away the differences between direct and indirect threading
 2625: (and, for direct threading, the machine dependences). However, at
 2626: present this wordset is still inclomplete. It is also pretty low-level;
 2627: some day it will hopefully be made unnecessary by an internals words set
 2628: that abstracts implementation details away completely.
 2629: 
 2630: doc->code-address
 2631: doc->does-code
 2632: doc-code-address!
 2633: doc-does-code!
 2634: doc-does-handler!
 2635: doc-/does-handler
 2636: 
 2637: The code addresses produced by various defining words are produced by
 2638: the following words:
 2639: 
 2640: doc-docol:
 2641: doc-docon:
 2642: doc-dovar:
 2643: doc-douser:
 2644: doc-dodefer:
 2645: doc-dofield:
 2646: 
 2647: You can recognize words defined by a @code{CREATE}...@code{DOES>} word
 2648: with @code{>DOES-CODE}. If the word was defined in that way, the value
 2649: returned is different from 0 and identifies the @code{DOES>} used by the
 2650: defining word.
 2651: 
 2652: @node Tools, ANS conformance, Words, Top
 2653: @chapter Tools
 2654: 
 2655: @menu
 2656: * ANS Report::                  Report the words used, sorted by wordset
 2657: @end menu
 2658: 
 2659: See also @ref{Emacs and Gforth}.
 2660: 
 2661: @node ANS Report,  , Tools, Tools
 2662: @section @file{ans-report.fs}: Report the words used, sorted by wordset
 2663: 
 2664: If you want to label a Forth program as ANS Forth Program, you must
 2665: document which wordsets the program uses; for extension wordsets, it is
 2666: helpful to list the words the program requires from these wordsets
 2667: (because Forth systems are allowed to provide only some words of them).
 2668: 
 2669: The @file{ans-report.fs} tool makes it easy for you to determine which
 2670: words from which wordset and which non-ANS words your application
 2671: uses. You simply have to include @file{ans-report.fs} before loading the
 2672: program you want to check. After loading your program, you can get the
 2673: report with @code{print-ans-report}. A typical use is to run this as
 2674: batch job like this:
 2675: @example
 2676: gforth ans-report.fs myprog.fs -e "print-ans-report bye"
 2677: @end example
 2678: 
 2679: The output looks like this (for @file{compat/control.fs}):
 2680: @example
 2681: The program uses the following words
 2682: from CORE :
 2683: : POSTPONE THEN ; immediate ?dup IF 0= 
 2684: from BLOCK-EXT :
 2685: \ 
 2686: from FILE :
 2687: ( 
 2688: @end example
 2689: 
 2690: @subsection Caveats
 2691: 
 2692: Note that @file{ans-report.fs} just checks which words are used, not whether
 2693: they are used in an ANS Forth conforming way!
 2694: 
 2695: Some words are defined in several wordsets in the
 2696: standard. @file{ans-report.fs} reports them for only one of the
 2697: wordsets, and not necessarily the one you expect. It depends on usage
 2698: which wordset is the right one to specify. E.g., if you only use the
 2699: compilation semantics of @code{S"}, it is a Core word; if you also use
 2700: its interpretation semantics, it is a File word.
 2701: 
 2702: 
 2703: @node ANS conformance, Model, Tools, Top
 2704: @chapter ANS conformance
 2705: 
 2706: To the best of our knowledge, Gforth is an
 2707: 
 2708: ANS Forth System
 2709: @itemize @bullet
 2710: @item providing the Core Extensions word set
 2711: @item providing the Block word set
 2712: @item providing the Block Extensions word set
 2713: @item providing the Double-Number word set
 2714: @item providing the Double-Number Extensions word set
 2715: @item providing the Exception word set
 2716: @item providing the Exception Extensions word set
 2717: @item providing the Facility word set
 2718: @item providing @code{MS} and @code{TIME&DATE} from the Facility Extensions word set
 2719: @item providing the File Access word set
 2720: @item providing the File Access Extensions word set
 2721: @item providing the Floating-Point word set
 2722: @item providing the Floating-Point Extensions word set
 2723: @item providing the Locals word set
 2724: @item providing the Locals Extensions word set
 2725: @item providing the Memory-Allocation word set
 2726: @item providing the Memory-Allocation Extensions word set (that one's easy)
 2727: @item providing the Programming-Tools word set
 2728: @item providing @code{;CODE}, @code{AHEAD}, @code{ASSEMBLER}, @code{BYE}, @code{CODE}, @code{CS-PICK}, @code{CS-ROLL}, @code{STATE}, @code{[ELSE]}, @code{[IF]}, @code{[THEN]} from the Programming-Tools Extensions word set
 2729: @item providing the Search-Order word set
 2730: @item providing the Search-Order Extensions word set
 2731: @item providing the String word set
 2732: @item providing the String Extensions word set (another easy one)
 2733: @end itemize
 2734: 
 2735: In addition, ANS Forth systems are required to document certain
 2736: implementation choices. This chapter tries to meet these
 2737: requirements. In many cases it gives a way to ask the system for the
 2738: information instead of providing the information directly, in
 2739: particular, if the information depends on the processor, the operating
 2740: system or the installation options chosen, or if they are likely to
 2741: change during the maintenance of Gforth.
 2742: 
 2743: @comment The framework for the rest has been taken from pfe.
 2744: 
 2745: @menu
 2746: * The Core Words::              
 2747: * The optional Block word set::  
 2748: * The optional Double Number word set::  
 2749: * The optional Exception word set::  
 2750: * The optional Facility word set::  
 2751: * The optional File-Access word set::  
 2752: * The optional Floating-Point word set::  
 2753: * The optional Locals word set::  
 2754: * The optional Memory-Allocation word set::  
 2755: * The optional Programming-Tools word set::  
 2756: * The optional Search-Order word set::  
 2757: @end menu
 2758: 
 2759: 
 2760: @c =====================================================================
 2761: @node The Core Words, The optional Block word set, ANS conformance, ANS conformance
 2762: @comment  node-name,  next,  previous,  up
 2763: @section The Core Words
 2764: @c =====================================================================
 2765: 
 2766: @menu
 2767: * core-idef::                   Implementation Defined Options                   
 2768: * core-ambcond::                Ambiguous Conditions                
 2769: * core-other::                  Other System Documentation                  
 2770: @end menu
 2771: 
 2772: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 2773: @node core-idef, core-ambcond, The Core Words, The Core Words
 2774: @subsection Implementation Defined Options
 2775: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 2776: 
 2777: @table @i
 2778: 
 2779: @item (Cell) aligned addresses:
 2780: processor-dependent. Gforth's alignment words perform natural alignment
 2781: (e.g., an address aligned for a datum of size 8 is divisible by
 2782: 8). Unaligned accesses usually result in a @code{-23 THROW}.
 2783: 
 2784: @item @code{EMIT} and non-graphic characters:
 2785: The character is output using the C library function (actually, macro)
 2786: @code{putc}.
 2787: 
 2788: @item character editing of @code{ACCEPT} and @code{EXPECT}:
 2789: This is modeled on the GNU readline library (@pxref{Readline
 2790: Interaction, , Command Line Editing, readline, The GNU Readline
 2791: Library}) with Emacs-like key bindings. @kbd{Tab} deviates a little by
 2792: producing a full word completion every time you type it (instead of
 2793: producing the common prefix of all completions).
 2794: 
 2795: @item character set:
 2796: The character set of your computer and display device. Gforth is
 2797: 8-bit-clean (but some other component in your system may make trouble).
 2798: 
 2799: @item Character-aligned address requirements:
 2800: installation-dependent. Currently a character is represented by a C
 2801: @code{unsigned char}; in the future we might switch to @code{wchar_t}
 2802: (Comments on that requested).
 2803: 
 2804: @item character-set extensions and matching of names:
 2805: Any character except the ASCII NUL charcter can be used in a
 2806: name. Matching is case-insensitive (except in @code{TABLE}s. The
 2807: matching is performed using the C function @code{strncasecmp}, whose
 2808: function is probably influenced by the locale. E.g., the @code{C} locale
 2809: does not know about accents and umlauts, so they are matched
 2810: case-sensitively in that locale. For portability reasons it is best to
 2811: write programs such that they work in the @code{C} locale. Then one can
 2812: use libraries written by a Polish programmer (who might use words
 2813: containing ISO Latin-2 encoded characters) and by a French programmer
 2814: (ISO Latin-1) in the same program (of course, @code{WORDS} will produce
 2815: funny results for some of the words (which ones, depends on the font you
 2816: are using)). Also, the locale you prefer may not be available in other
 2817: operating systems. Hopefully, Unicode will solve these problems one day.
 2818: 
 2819: @item conditions under which control characters match a space delimiter:
 2820: If @code{WORD} is called with the space character as a delimiter, all
 2821: white-space characters (as identified by the C macro @code{isspace()})
 2822: are delimiters. @code{PARSE}, on the other hand, treats space like other
 2823: delimiters. @code{PARSE-WORD} treats space like @code{WORD}, but behaves
 2824: like @code{PARSE} otherwise. @code{(NAME)}, which is used by the outer
 2825: interpreter (aka text interpreter) by default, treats all white-space
 2826: characters as delimiters.
 2827: 
 2828: @item format of the control flow stack:
 2829: The data stack is used as control flow stack. The size of a control flow
 2830: stack item in cells is given by the constant @code{cs-item-size}. At the
 2831: time of this writing, an item consists of a (pointer to a) locals list
 2832: (third), an address in the code (second), and a tag for identifying the
 2833: item (TOS). The following tags are used: @code{defstart},
 2834: @code{live-orig}, @code{dead-orig}, @code{dest}, @code{do-dest},
 2835: @code{scopestart}.
 2836: 
 2837: @item conversion of digits > 35
 2838: The characters @code{[\]^_'} are the digits with the decimal value
 2839: 36@minus{}41. There is no way to input many of the larger digits.
 2840: 
 2841: @item display after input terminates in @code{ACCEPT} and @code{EXPECT}:
 2842: The cursor is moved to the end of the entered string. If the input is
 2843: terminated using the @kbd{Return} key, a space is typed.
 2844: 
 2845: @item exception abort sequence of @code{ABORT"}:
 2846: The error string is stored into the variable @code{"error} and a
 2847: @code{-2 throw} is performed.
 2848: 
 2849: @item input line terminator:
 2850: For interactive input, @kbd{C-m} (CR) and @kbd{C-j} (LF) terminate
 2851: lines. One of these characters is typically produced when you type the
 2852: @kbd{Enter} or @kbd{Return} key.
 2853: 
 2854: @item maximum size of a counted string:
 2855: @code{s" /counted-string" environment? drop .}. Currently 255 characters
 2856: on all ports, but this may change.
 2857: 
 2858: @item maximum size of a parsed string:
 2859: Given by the constant @code{/line}. Currently 255 characters.
 2860: 
 2861: @item maximum size of a definition name, in characters:
 2862: 31
 2863: 
 2864: @item maximum string length for @code{ENVIRONMENT?}, in characters:
 2865: 31
 2866: 
 2867: @item method of selecting the user input device:
 2868: The user input device is the standard input. There is currently no way to
 2869: change it from within Gforth. However, the input can typically be
 2870: redirected in the command line that starts Gforth.
 2871: 
 2872: @item method of selecting the user output device:
 2873: @code{EMIT} and @code{TYPE} output to the file-id stored in the value
 2874: @code{outfile-id} (@code{stdout} by default). Gforth uses buffered
 2875: output, so output on a terminal does not become visible before the next
 2876: newline or buffer overflow. Output on non-terminals is invisible until
 2877: the buffer overflows.
 2878: 
 2879: @item methods of dictionary compilation:
 2880: What are we expected to document here?
 2881: 
 2882: @item number of bits in one address unit:
 2883: @code{s" address-units-bits" environment? drop .}. 8 in all current
 2884: ports.
 2885: 
 2886: @item number representation and arithmetic:
 2887: Processor-dependent. Binary two's complement on all current ports.
 2888: 
 2889: @item ranges for integer types:
 2890: Installation-dependent. Make environmental queries for @code{MAX-N},
 2891: @code{MAX-U}, @code{MAX-D} and @code{MAX-UD}. The lower bounds for
 2892: unsigned (and positive) types is 0. The lower bound for signed types on
 2893: two's complement and one's complement machines machines can be computed
 2894: by adding 1 to the upper bound.
 2895: 
 2896: @item read-only data space regions:
 2897: The whole Forth data space is writable.
 2898: 
 2899: @item size of buffer at @code{WORD}:
 2900: @code{PAD HERE - .}. 104 characters on 32-bit machines. The buffer is
 2901: shared with the pictured numeric output string. If overwriting
 2902: @code{PAD} is acceptable, it is as large as the remaining dictionary
 2903: space, although only as much can be sensibly used as fits in a counted
 2904: string.
 2905: 
 2906: @item size of one cell in address units:
 2907: @code{1 cells .}.
 2908: 
 2909: @item size of one character in address units:
 2910: @code{1 chars .}. 1 on all current ports.
 2911: 
 2912: @item size of the keyboard terminal buffer:
 2913: Varies. You can determine the size at a specific time using @code{lp@@
 2914: tib - .}. It is shared with the locals stack and TIBs of files that
 2915: include the current file. You can change the amount of space for TIBs
 2916: and locals stack at Gforth startup with the command line option
 2917: @code{-l}.
 2918: 
 2919: @item size of the pictured numeric output buffer:
 2920: @code{PAD HERE - .}. 104 characters on 32-bit machines. The buffer is
 2921: shared with @code{WORD}.
 2922: 
 2923: @item size of the scratch area returned by @code{PAD}:
 2924: The remainder of dictionary space. You can even use the unused part of
 2925: the data stack space. The current size can be computed with @code{sp@@
 2926: pad - .}.
 2927: 
 2928: @item system case-sensitivity characteristics:
 2929: Dictionary searches are case insensitive (except in
 2930: @code{TABLE}s). However, as explained above under @i{character-set
 2931: extensions}, the matching for non-ASCII characters is determined by the
 2932: locale you are using. In the default @code{C} locale all non-ASCII
 2933: characters are matched case-sensitively.
 2934: 
 2935: @item system prompt:
 2936: @code{ ok} in interpret state, @code{ compiled} in compile state.
 2937: 
 2938: @item division rounding:
 2939: installation dependent. @code{s" floored" environment? drop .}. We leave
 2940: the choice to @code{gcc} (what to use for @code{/}) and to you (whether to use
 2941: @code{fm/mod}, @code{sm/rem} or simply @code{/}).
 2942: 
 2943: @item values of @code{STATE} when true:
 2944: -1.
 2945: 
 2946: @item values returned after arithmetic overflow:
 2947: On two's complement machines, arithmetic is performed modulo
 2948: 2**bits-per-cell for single arithmetic and 4**bits-per-cell for double
 2949: arithmetic (with appropriate mapping for signed types). Division by zero
 2950: typically results in a @code{-55 throw} (Floating-point unidentified
 2951: fault), although a @code{-10 throw} (divide by zero) would be more
 2952: appropriate.
 2953: 
 2954: @item whether the current definition can be found after @t{DOES>}:
 2955: No.
 2956: 
 2957: @end table
 2958: 
 2959: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 2960: @node core-ambcond, core-other, core-idef, The Core Words
 2961: @subsection Ambiguous conditions
 2962: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 2963: 
 2964: @table @i
 2965: 
 2966: @item a name is neither a word nor a number:
 2967: @code{-13 throw} (Undefined word). Actually, @code{-13 bounce}, which
 2968: preserves the data and FP stack, so you don't lose more work than
 2969: necessary.
 2970: 
 2971: @item a definition name exceeds the maximum length allowed:
 2972: @code{-19 throw} (Word name too long)
 2973: 
 2974: @item addressing a region not inside the various data spaces of the forth system:
 2975: The stacks, code space and name space are accessible. Machine code space is
 2976: typically readable. Accessing other addresses gives results dependent on
 2977: the operating system. On decent systems: @code{-9 throw} (Invalid memory
 2978: address).
 2979: 
 2980: @item argument type incompatible with parameter:
 2981: This is usually not caught. Some words perform checks, e.g., the control
 2982: flow words, and issue a @code{ABORT"} or @code{-12 THROW} (Argument type
 2983: mismatch).
 2984: 
 2985: @item attempting to obtain the execution token of a word with undefined execution semantics:
 2986: @code{-14 throw} (Interpreting a compile-only word). In some cases, you
 2987: get an execution token for @code{compile-only-error} (which performs a
 2988: @code{-14 throw} when executed).
 2989: 
 2990: @item dividing by zero:
 2991: typically results in a @code{-55 throw} (floating point unidentified
 2992: fault), although a @code{-10 throw} (divide by zero) would be more
 2993: appropriate.
 2994: 
 2995: @item insufficient data stack or return stack space:
 2996: Not checked. This typically results in mysterious illegal memory
 2997: accesses, producing @code{-9 throw} (Invalid memory address) or
 2998: @code{-23 throw} (Address alignment exception).
 2999: 
 3000: @item insufficient space for loop control parameters:
 3001: like other return stack overflows.
 3002: 
 3003: @item insufficient space in the dictionary:
 3004: Not checked. Similar results as stack overflows. However, typically the
 3005: error appears at a different place when one inserts or removes code.
 3006: 
 3007: @item interpreting a word with undefined interpretation semantics:
 3008: For some words, we defined interpretation semantics. For the others:
 3009: @code{-14 throw} (Interpreting a compile-only word).
 3010: 
 3011: @item modifying the contents of the input buffer or a string literal:
 3012: These are located in writable memory and can be modified.
 3013: 
 3014: @item overflow of the pictured numeric output string:
 3015: Not checked.
 3016: 
 3017: @item parsed string overflow:
 3018: @code{PARSE} cannot overflow. @code{WORD} does not check for overflow.
 3019: 
 3020: @item producing a result out of range:
 3021: On two's complement machines, arithmetic is performed modulo
 3022: 2**bits-per-cell for single arithmetic and 4**bits-per-cell for double
 3023: arithmetic (with appropriate mapping for signed types). Division by zero
 3024: typically results in a @code{-55 throw} (floatingpoint unidentified
 3025: fault), although a @code{-10 throw} (divide by zero) would be more
 3026: appropriate. @code{convert} and @code{>number} currently overflow
 3027: silently.
 3028: 
 3029: @item reading from an empty data or return stack:
 3030: The data stack is checked by the outer (aka text) interpreter after
 3031: every word executed. If it has underflowed, a @code{-4 throw} (Stack
 3032: underflow) is performed. Apart from that, the stacks are not checked and
 3033: underflows can result in similar behaviour as overflows (of adjacent
 3034: stacks).
 3035: 
 3036: @item unexpected end of the input buffer, resulting in an attempt to use a zero-length string as a name:
 3037: @code{Create} and its descendants perform a @code{-16 throw} (Attempt to
 3038: use zero-length string as a name). Words like @code{'} probably will not
 3039: find what they search. Note that it is possible to create zero-length
 3040: names with @code{nextname} (should it not?).
 3041: 
 3042: @item @code{>IN} greater than input buffer:
 3043: The next invocation of a parsing word returns a string wih length 0.
 3044: 
 3045: @item @code{RECURSE} appears after @code{DOES>}:
 3046: Compiles a recursive call to the defining word, not to the defined word.
 3047: 
 3048: @item argument input source different than current input source for @code{RESTORE-INPUT}:
 3049: @code{-12 THROW}. Note that, once an input file is closed (e.g., because
 3050: the end of the file was reached), its source-id may be
 3051: reused. Therefore, restoring an input source specification referencing a
 3052: closed file may lead to unpredictable results instead of a @code{-12
 3053: THROW}.
 3054: 
 3055: In the future, Gforth may be able to restore input source specifications
 3056: from other than the current input soruce.
 3057: 
 3058: @item data space containing definitions gets de-allocated:
 3059: Deallocation with @code{allot} is not checked. This typically resuls in
 3060: memory access faults or execution of illegal instructions.
 3061: 
 3062: @item data space read/write with incorrect alignment:
 3063: Processor-dependent. Typically results in a @code{-23 throw} (Address
 3064: alignment exception). Under Linux on a 486 or later processor with
 3065: alignment turned on, incorrect alignment results in a @code{-9 throw}
 3066: (Invalid memory address). There are reportedly some processors with
 3067: alignment restrictions that do not report them.
 3068: 
 3069: @item data space pointer not properly aligned, @code{,}, @code{C,}:
 3070: Like other alignment errors.
 3071: 
 3072: @item less than u+2 stack items (@code{PICK} and @code{ROLL}):
 3073: Not checked. May cause an illegal memory access.
 3074: 
 3075: @item loop control parameters not available:
 3076: Not checked. The counted loop words simply assume that the top of return
 3077: stack items are loop control parameters and behave accordingly.
 3078: 
 3079: @item most recent definition does not have a name (@code{IMMEDIATE}):
 3080: @code{abort" last word was headerless"}.
 3081: 
 3082: @item name not defined by @code{VALUE} used by @code{TO}:
 3083: @code{-32 throw} (Invalid name argument) (unless name was defined by
 3084: @code{CONSTANT}; then it just changes the constant).
 3085: 
 3086: @item name not found (@code{'}, @code{POSTPONE}, @code{[']}, @code{[COMPILE]}):
 3087: @code{-13 throw} (Undefined word)
 3088: 
 3089: @item parameters are not of the same type (@code{DO}, @code{?DO}, @code{WITHIN}):
 3090: Gforth behaves as if they were of the same type. I.e., you can predict
 3091: the behaviour by interpreting all parameters as, e.g., signed.
 3092: 
 3093: @item @code{POSTPONE} or @code{[COMPILE]} applied to @code{TO}:
 3094: Assume @code{: X POSTPONE TO ; IMMEDIATE}. @code{X} performs the
 3095: compilation semantics of @code{TO}.
 3096: 
 3097: @item String longer than a counted string returned by @code{WORD}:
 3098: Not checked. The string will be ok, but the count will, of course,
 3099: contain only the least significant bits of the length.
 3100: 
 3101: @item u greater than or equal to the number of bits in a cell (@code{LSHIFT}, @code{RSHIFT}):
 3102: Processor-dependent. Typical behaviours are returning 0 and using only
 3103: the low bits of the shift count.
 3104: 
 3105: @item word not defined via @code{CREATE}:
 3106: @code{>BODY} produces the PFA of the word no matter how it was defined.
 3107: 
 3108: @code{DOES>} changes the execution semantics of the last defined word no
 3109: matter how it was defined. E.g., @code{CONSTANT DOES>} is equivalent to
 3110: @code{CREATE , DOES>}.
 3111: 
 3112: @item words improperly used outside @code{<#} and @code{#>}:
 3113: Not checked. As usual, you can expect memory faults.
 3114: 
 3115: @end table
 3116: 
 3117: 
 3118: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 3119: @node core-other,  , core-ambcond, The Core Words
 3120: @subsection Other system documentation
 3121: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 3122: 
 3123: @table @i
 3124: 
 3125: @item nonstandard words using @code{PAD}:
 3126: None.
 3127: 
 3128: @item operator's terminal facilities available:
 3129: After processing the command line, Gforth goes into interactive mode,
 3130: and you can give commands to Gforth interactively. The actual facilities
 3131: available depend on how you invoke Gforth.
 3132: 
 3133: @item program data space available:
 3134: @code{sp@@ here - .} gives the space remaining for dictionary and data
 3135: stack together.
 3136: 
 3137: @item return stack space available:
 3138: By default 16 KBytes. The default can be overridden with the @code{-r}
 3139: switch (@pxref{Invocation}) when Gforth starts up.
 3140: 
 3141: @item stack space available:
 3142: @code{sp@@ here - .} gives the space remaining for dictionary and data
 3143: stack together.
 3144: 
 3145: @item system dictionary space required, in address units:
 3146: Type @code{here forthstart - .} after startup. At the time of this
 3147: writing, this gives 70108 (bytes) on a 32-bit system.
 3148: @end table
 3149: 
 3150: 
 3151: @c =====================================================================
 3152: @node The optional Block word set, The optional Double Number word set, The Core Words, ANS conformance
 3153: @section The optional Block word set
 3154: @c =====================================================================
 3155: 
 3156: @menu
 3157: * block-idef::                  Implementation Defined Options                  
 3158: * block-ambcond::               Ambiguous Conditions               
 3159: * block-other::                 Other System Documentation                 
 3160: @end menu
 3161: 
 3162: 
 3163: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 3164: @node block-idef, block-ambcond, The optional Block word set, The optional Block word set
 3165: @subsection Implementation Defined Options
 3166: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 3167: 
 3168: @table @i
 3169: 
 3170: @item the format for display by @code{LIST}:
 3171: First the screen number is displayed, then 16 lines of 64 characters,
 3172: each line preceded by the line number.
 3173: 
 3174: @item the length of a line affected by @code{\}:
 3175: 64 characters.
 3176: @end table
 3177: 
 3178: 
 3179: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 3180: @node block-ambcond, block-other, block-idef, The optional Block word set
 3181: @subsection Ambiguous conditions
 3182: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 3183: 
 3184: @table @i
 3185: 
 3186: @item correct block read was not possible:
 3187: Typically results in a @code{throw} of some OS-derived value (between
 3188: -512 and -2048). If the blocks file was just not long enough, blanks are
 3189: supplied for the missing portion.
 3190: 
 3191: @item I/O exception in block transfer:
 3192: Typically results in a @code{throw} of some OS-derived value (between
 3193: -512 and -2048).
 3194: 
 3195: @item invalid block number:
 3196: @code{-35 throw} (Invalid block number)
 3197: 
 3198: @item a program directly alters the contents of @code{BLK}:
 3199: The input stream is switched to that other block, at the same
 3200: position. If the storing to @code{BLK} happens when interpreting
 3201: non-block input, the system will get quite confused when the block ends.
 3202: 
 3203: @item no current block buffer for @code{UPDATE}:
 3204: @code{UPDATE} has no effect.
 3205: 
 3206: @end table
 3207: 
 3208: 
 3209: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 3210: @node block-other,  , block-ambcond, The optional Block word set
 3211: @subsection Other system documentation
 3212: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 3213: 
 3214: @table @i
 3215: 
 3216: @item any restrictions a multiprogramming system places on the use of buffer addresses:
 3217: No restrictions (yet).
 3218: 
 3219: @item the number of blocks available for source and data:
 3220: depends on your disk space.
 3221: 
 3222: @end table
 3223: 
 3224: 
 3225: @c =====================================================================
 3226: @node The optional Double Number word set, The optional Exception word set, The optional Block word set, ANS conformance
 3227: @section The optional Double Number word set
 3228: @c =====================================================================
 3229: 
 3230: @menu
 3231: * double-ambcond::              Ambiguous Conditions              
 3232: @end menu
 3233: 
 3234: 
 3235: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 3236: @node double-ambcond,  , The optional Double Number word set, The optional Double Number word set
 3237: @subsection Ambiguous conditions
 3238: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 3239: 
 3240: @table @i
 3241: 
 3242: @item @var{d} outside of range of @var{n} in @code{D>S}:
 3243: The least significant cell of @var{d} is produced.
 3244: 
 3245: @end table
 3246: 
 3247: 
 3248: @c =====================================================================
 3249: @node The optional Exception word set, The optional Facility word set, The optional Double Number word set, ANS conformance
 3250: @section The optional Exception word set
 3251: @c =====================================================================
 3252: 
 3253: @menu
 3254: * exception-idef::              Implementation Defined Options              
 3255: @end menu
 3256: 
 3257: 
 3258: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 3259: @node exception-idef,  , The optional Exception word set, The optional Exception word set
 3260: @subsection Implementation Defined Options
 3261: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 3262: 
 3263: @table @i
 3264: @item @code{THROW}-codes used in the system:
 3265: The codes -256@minus{}-511 are used for reporting signals (see
 3266: @file{errore.fs}). The codes -512@minus{}-2047 are used for OS errors
 3267: (for file and memory allocation operations). The mapping from OS error
 3268: numbers to throw code is -512@minus{}@code{errno}. One side effect of
 3269: this mapping is that undefined OS errors produce a message with a
 3270: strange number; e.g., @code{-1000 THROW} results in @code{Unknown error
 3271: 488} on my system.
 3272: @end table
 3273: 
 3274: @c =====================================================================
 3275: @node The optional Facility word set, The optional File-Access word set, The optional Exception word set, ANS conformance
 3276: @section The optional Facility word set
 3277: @c =====================================================================
 3278: 
 3279: @menu
 3280: * facility-idef::               Implementation Defined Options               
 3281: * facility-ambcond::            Ambiguous Conditions            
 3282: @end menu
 3283: 
 3284: 
 3285: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 3286: @node facility-idef, facility-ambcond, The optional Facility word set, The optional Facility word set
 3287: @subsection Implementation Defined Options
 3288: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 3289: 
 3290: @table @i
 3291: 
 3292: @item encoding of keyboard events (@code{EKEY}):
 3293: Not yet implemeted.
 3294: 
 3295: @item duration of a system clock tick
 3296: System dependent. With respect to @code{MS}, the time is specified in
 3297: microseconds. How well the OS and the hardware implement this, is
 3298: another question.
 3299: 
 3300: @item repeatability to be expected from the execution of @code{MS}:
 3301: System dependent. On Unix, a lot depends on load. If the system is
 3302: lightly loaded, and the delay is short enough that Gforth does not get
 3303: swapped out, the performance should be acceptable. Under MS-DOS and
 3304: other single-tasking systems, it should be good.
 3305: 
 3306: @end table
 3307: 
 3308: 
 3309: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 3310: @node facility-ambcond,  , facility-idef, The optional Facility word set
 3311: @subsection Ambiguous conditions
 3312: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 3313: 
 3314: @table @i
 3315: 
 3316: @item @code{AT-XY} can't be performed on user output device:
 3317: Largely terminal dependant. No range checks are done on the arguments.
 3318: No errors are reported. You may see some garbage appearing, you may see
 3319: simply nothing happen.
 3320: 
 3321: @end table
 3322: 
 3323: 
 3324: @c =====================================================================
 3325: @node The optional File-Access word set, The optional Floating-Point word set, The optional Facility word set, ANS conformance
 3326: @section The optional File-Access word set
 3327: @c =====================================================================
 3328: 
 3329: @menu
 3330: * file-idef::                   Implementation Defined Options                   
 3331: * file-ambcond::                Ambiguous Conditions                
 3332: @end menu
 3333: 
 3334: 
 3335: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 3336: @node file-idef, file-ambcond, The optional File-Access word set, The optional File-Access word set
 3337: @subsection Implementation Defined Options
 3338: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 3339: 
 3340: @table @i
 3341: 
 3342: @item File access methods used:
 3343: @code{R/O}, @code{R/W} and @code{BIN} work as you would
 3344: expect. @code{W/O} translates into the C file opening mode @code{w} (or
 3345: @code{wb}): The file is cleared, if it exists, and created, if it does
 3346: not (both with @code{open-file} and @code{create-file}).  Under Unix
 3347: @code{create-file} creates a file with 666 permissions modified by your
 3348: umask.
 3349: 
 3350: @item file exceptions:
 3351: The file words do not raise exceptions (except, perhaps, memory access
 3352: faults when you pass illegal addresses or file-ids).
 3353: 
 3354: @item file line terminator:
 3355: System-dependent. Gforth uses C's newline character as line
 3356: terminator. What the actual character code(s) of this are is
 3357: system-dependent.
 3358: 
 3359: @item file name format
 3360: System dependent. Gforth just uses the file name format of your OS.
 3361: 
 3362: @item information returned by @code{FILE-STATUS}:
 3363: @code{FILE-STATUS} returns the most powerful file access mode allowed
 3364: for the file: Either @code{R/O}, @code{W/O} or @code{R/W}. If the file
 3365: cannot be accessed, @code{R/O BIN} is returned. @code{BIN} is applicable
 3366: along with the retured mode.
 3367: 
 3368: @item input file state after an exception when including source:
 3369: All files that are left via the exception are closed.
 3370: 
 3371: @item @var{ior} values and meaning:
 3372: The @var{ior}s returned by the file and memory allocation words are
 3373: intended as throw codes. They typically are in the range
 3374: -512@minus{}-2047 of OS errors.  The mapping from OS error numbers to
 3375: @var{ior}s is -512@minus{}@var{errno}.
 3376: 
 3377: @item maximum depth of file input nesting:
 3378: limited by the amount of return stack, locals/TIB stack, and the number
 3379: of open files available. This should not give you troubles.
 3380: 
 3381: @item maximum size of input line:
 3382: @code{/line}. Currently 255.
 3383: 
 3384: @item methods of mapping block ranges to files:
 3385: By default, blocks are accessed in the file @file{blocks.fb} in the
 3386: current working directory. The file can be switched with @code{USE}.
 3387: 
 3388: @item number of string buffers provided by @code{S"}:
 3389: 1
 3390: 
 3391: @item size of string buffer used by @code{S"}:
 3392: @code{/line}. currently 255.
 3393: 
 3394: @end table
 3395: 
 3396: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 3397: @node file-ambcond,  , file-idef, The optional File-Access word set
 3398: @subsection Ambiguous conditions
 3399: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 3400: 
 3401: @table @i
 3402: 
 3403: @item attempting to position a file outside it's boundaries:
 3404: @code{REPOSITION-FILE} is performed as usual: Afterwards,
 3405: @code{FILE-POSITION} returns the value given to @code{REPOSITION-FILE}.
 3406: 
 3407: @item attempting to read from file positions not yet written:
 3408: End-of-file, i.e., zero characters are read and no error is reported.
 3409: 
 3410: @item @var{file-id} is invalid (@code{INCLUDE-FILE}):
 3411: An appropriate exception may be thrown, but a memory fault or other
 3412: problem is more probable.
 3413: 
 3414: @item I/O exception reading or closing @var{file-id} (@code{include-file}, @code{included}):
 3415: The @var{ior} produced by the operation, that discovered the problem, is
 3416: thrown.
 3417: 
 3418: @item named file cannot be opened (@code{included}):
 3419: The @var{ior} produced by @code{open-file} is thrown.
 3420: 
 3421: @item requesting an unmapped block number:
 3422: There are no unmapped legal block numbers. On some operating systems,
 3423: writing a block with a large number may overflow the file system and
 3424: have an error message as consequence.
 3425: 
 3426: @item using @code{source-id} when @code{blk} is non-zero:
 3427: @code{source-id} performs its function. Typically it will give the id of
 3428: the source which loaded the block. (Better ideas?)
 3429: 
 3430: @end table
 3431: 
 3432: 
 3433: @c =====================================================================
 3434: @node  The optional Floating-Point word set, The optional Locals word set, The optional File-Access word set, ANS conformance
 3435: @section The optional Floating-Point word set
 3436: @c =====================================================================
 3437: 
 3438: @menu
 3439: * floating-idef::               Implementation Defined Options
 3440: * floating-ambcond::            Ambiguous Conditions            
 3441: @end menu
 3442: 
 3443: 
 3444: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 3445: @node floating-idef, floating-ambcond, The optional Floating-Point word set, The optional Floating-Point word set
 3446: @subsection Implementation Defined Options
 3447: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 3448: 
 3449: @table @i
 3450: 
 3451: @item format and range of floating point numbers:
 3452: System-dependent; the @code{double} type of C.
 3453: 
 3454: @item results of @code{REPRESENT} when @var{float} is out of range:
 3455: System dependent; @code{REPRESENT} is implemented using the C library
 3456: function @code{ecvt()} and inherits its behaviour in this respect.
 3457: 
 3458: @item rounding or truncation of floating-point numbers:
 3459: System dependent; the rounding behaviour is inherited from the hosting C
 3460: compiler. IEEE-FP-based (i.e., most) systems by default round to
 3461: nearest, and break ties by rounding to even (i.e., such that the last
 3462: bit of the mantissa is 0).
 3463: 
 3464: @item size of floating-point stack:
 3465: @code{s" FLOATING-STACK" environment? drop .}. Can be changed at startup
 3466: with the command-line option @code{-f}.
 3467: 
 3468: @item width of floating-point stack:
 3469: @code{1 floats}.
 3470: 
 3471: @end table
 3472: 
 3473: 
 3474: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 3475: @node floating-ambcond,  , floating-idef, The optional Floating-Point word set
 3476: @subsection Ambiguous conditions
 3477: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 3478: 
 3479: @table @i
 3480: 
 3481: @item @code{df@@} or @code{df!} used with an address that is not double-float  aligned:
 3482: System-dependent. Typically results in a @code{-23 THROW} like other
 3483: alignment violations.
 3484: 
 3485: @item @code{f@@} or @code{f!} used with an address that is not float  aligned:
 3486: System-dependent. Typically results in a @code{-23 THROW} like other
 3487: alignment violations.
 3488: 
 3489: @item Floating-point result out of range:
 3490: System-dependent. Can result in a @code{-55 THROW} (Floating-point
 3491: unidentified fault), or can produce a special value representing, e.g.,
 3492: Infinity.
 3493: 
 3494: @item @code{sf@@} or @code{sf!} used with an address that is not single-float  aligned:
 3495: System-dependent. Typically results in an alignment fault like other
 3496: alignment violations.
 3497: 
 3498: @item BASE is not decimal (@code{REPRESENT}, @code{F.}, @code{FE.}, @code{FS.}):
 3499: The floating-point number is converted into decimal nonetheless.
 3500: 
 3501: @item Both arguments are equal to zero (@code{FATAN2}):
 3502: System-dependent. @code{FATAN2} is implemented using the C library
 3503: function @code{atan2()}.
 3504: 
 3505: @item Using ftan on an argument @var{r1} where cos(@var{r1}) is zero:
 3506: System-dependent. Anyway, typically the cos of @var{r1} will not be zero
 3507: because of small errors and the tan will be a very large (or very small)
 3508: but finite number.
 3509: 
 3510: @item @var{d} cannot be presented precisely as a float in @code{D>F}:
 3511: The result is rounded to the nearest float.
 3512: 
 3513: @item dividing by zero:
 3514: @code{-55 throw} (Floating-point unidentified fault)
 3515: 
 3516: @item exponent too big for conversion (@code{DF!}, @code{DF@@}, @code{SF!}, @code{SF@@}):
 3517: System dependent. On IEEE-FP based systems the number is converted into
 3518: an infinity.
 3519: 
 3520: @item @var{float}<1 (@code{facosh}):
 3521: @code{-55 throw} (Floating-point unidentified fault)
 3522: 
 3523: @item @var{float}=<-1 (@code{flnp1}):
 3524: @code{-55 throw} (Floating-point unidentified fault). On IEEE-FP systems
 3525: negative infinity is typically produced for @var{float}=-1.
 3526: 
 3527: @item @var{float}=<0 (@code{fln}, @code{flog}):
 3528: @code{-55 throw} (Floating-point unidentified fault). On IEEE-FP systems
 3529: negative infinity is typically produced for @var{float}=0.
 3530: 
 3531: @item @var{float}<0 (@code{fasinh}, @code{fsqrt}):
 3532: @code{-55 throw} (Floating-point unidentified fault). @code{fasinh}
 3533: produces values for these inputs on my Linux box (Bug in the C library?)
 3534: 
 3535: @item |@var{float}|>1 (@code{facos}, @code{fasin}, @code{fatanh}):
 3536: @code{-55 throw} (Floating-point unidentified fault).
 3537: 
 3538: @item integer part of float cannot be represented by @var{d} in @code{f>d}:
 3539: @code{-55 throw} (Floating-point unidentified fault).
 3540: 
 3541: @item string larger than pictured numeric output area (@code{f.}, @code{fe.}, @code{fs.}):
 3542: This does not happen.
 3543: @end table
 3544: 
 3545: 
 3546: 
 3547: @c =====================================================================
 3548: @node  The optional Locals word set, The optional Memory-Allocation word set, The optional Floating-Point word set, ANS conformance
 3549: @section The optional Locals word set
 3550: @c =====================================================================
 3551: 
 3552: @menu
 3553: * locals-idef::                 Implementation Defined Options                 
 3554: * locals-ambcond::              Ambiguous Conditions              
 3555: @end menu
 3556: 
 3557: 
 3558: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 3559: @node locals-idef, locals-ambcond, The optional Locals word set, The optional Locals word set
 3560: @subsection Implementation Defined Options
 3561: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 3562: 
 3563: @table @i
 3564: 
 3565: @item maximum number of locals in a definition:
 3566: @code{s" #locals" environment? drop .}. Currently 15. This is a lower
 3567: bound, e.g., on a 32-bit machine there can be 41 locals of up to 8
 3568: characters. The number of locals in a definition is bounded by the size
 3569: of locals-buffer, which contains the names of the locals.
 3570: 
 3571: @end table
 3572: 
 3573: 
 3574: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 3575: @node locals-ambcond,  , locals-idef, The optional Locals word set
 3576: @subsection Ambiguous conditions
 3577: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 3578: 
 3579: @table @i
 3580: 
 3581: @item executing a named local in interpretation state:
 3582: @code{-14 throw} (Interpreting a compile-only word).
 3583: 
 3584: @item @var{name} not defined by @code{VALUE} or @code{(LOCAL)} (@code{TO}):
 3585: @code{-32 throw} (Invalid name argument)
 3586: 
 3587: @end table
 3588: 
 3589: 
 3590: @c =====================================================================
 3591: @node  The optional Memory-Allocation word set, The optional Programming-Tools word set, The optional Locals word set, ANS conformance
 3592: @section The optional Memory-Allocation word set
 3593: @c =====================================================================
 3594: 
 3595: @menu
 3596: * memory-idef::                 Implementation Defined Options                 
 3597: @end menu
 3598: 
 3599: 
 3600: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 3601: @node memory-idef,  , The optional Memory-Allocation word set, The optional Memory-Allocation word set
 3602: @subsection Implementation Defined Options
 3603: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 3604: 
 3605: @table @i
 3606: 
 3607: @item values and meaning of @var{ior}:
 3608: The @var{ior}s returned by the file and memory allocation words are
 3609: intended as throw codes. They typically are in the range
 3610: -512@minus{}-2047 of OS errors.  The mapping from OS error numbers to
 3611: @var{ior}s is -512@minus{}@var{errno}.
 3612: 
 3613: @end table
 3614: 
 3615: @c =====================================================================
 3616: @node  The optional Programming-Tools word set, The optional Search-Order word set, The optional Memory-Allocation word set, ANS conformance
 3617: @section The optional Programming-Tools word set
 3618: @c =====================================================================
 3619: 
 3620: @menu
 3621: * programming-idef::            Implementation Defined Options            
 3622: * programming-ambcond::         Ambiguous Conditions         
 3623: @end menu
 3624: 
 3625: 
 3626: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 3627: @node programming-idef, programming-ambcond, The optional Programming-Tools word set, The optional Programming-Tools word set
 3628: @subsection Implementation Defined Options
 3629: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 3630: 
 3631: @table @i
 3632: 
 3633: @item ending sequence for input following @code{;code} and @code{code}:
 3634: @code{end-code}
 3635: 
 3636: @item manner of processing input following @code{;code} and @code{code}:
 3637: The @code{assembler} vocabulary is pushed on the search order stack, and
 3638: the input is processed by the text interpreter, (starting) in interpret
 3639: state.
 3640: 
 3641: @item search order capability for @code{EDITOR} and @code{ASSEMBLER}:
 3642: The ANS Forth search order word set.
 3643: 
 3644: @item source and format of display by @code{SEE}:
 3645: The source for @code{see} is the intermediate code used by the inner
 3646: interpreter.  The current @code{see} tries to output Forth source code
 3647: as well as possible.
 3648: 
 3649: @end table
 3650: 
 3651: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 3652: @node programming-ambcond,  , programming-idef, The optional Programming-Tools word set
 3653: @subsection Ambiguous conditions
 3654: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 3655: 
 3656: @table @i
 3657: 
 3658: @item deleting the compilation wordlist (@code{FORGET}):
 3659: Not implemented (yet).
 3660: 
 3661: @item fewer than @var{u}+1 items on the control flow stack (@code{CS-PICK}, @code{CS-ROLL}):
 3662: This typically results in an @code{abort"} with a descriptive error
 3663: message (may change into a @code{-22 throw} (Control structure mismatch)
 3664: in the future). You may also get a memory access error. If you are
 3665: unlucky, this ambiguous condition is not caught.
 3666: 
 3667: @item @var{name} can't be found (@code{forget}):
 3668: Not implemented (yet).
 3669: 
 3670: @item @var{name} not defined via @code{CREATE}:
 3671: @code{;code} behaves like @code{DOES>} in this respect, i.e., it changes
 3672: the execution semantics of the last defined word no matter how it was
 3673: defined.
 3674: 
 3675: @item @code{POSTPONE} applied to @code{[IF]}:
 3676: After defining @code{: X POSTPONE [IF] ; IMMEDIATE}. @code{X} is
 3677: equivalent to @code{[IF]}.
 3678: 
 3679: @item reaching the end of the input source before matching @code{[ELSE]} or @code{[THEN]}:
 3680: Continue in the same state of conditional compilation in the next outer
 3681: input source. Currently there is no warning to the user about this.
 3682: 
 3683: @item removing a needed definition (@code{FORGET}):
 3684: Not implemented (yet).
 3685: 
 3686: @end table
 3687: 
 3688: 
 3689: @c =====================================================================
 3690: @node  The optional Search-Order word set,  , The optional Programming-Tools word set, ANS conformance
 3691: @section The optional Search-Order word set
 3692: @c =====================================================================
 3693: 
 3694: @menu
 3695: * search-idef::                 Implementation Defined Options                 
 3696: * search-ambcond::              Ambiguous Conditions              
 3697: @end menu
 3698: 
 3699: 
 3700: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 3701: @node search-idef, search-ambcond, The optional Search-Order word set, The optional Search-Order word set
 3702: @subsection Implementation Defined Options
 3703: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 3704: 
 3705: @table @i
 3706: 
 3707: @item maximum number of word lists in search order:
 3708: @code{s" wordlists" environment? drop .}. Currently 16.
 3709: 
 3710: @item minimum search order:
 3711: @code{root root}.
 3712: 
 3713: @end table
 3714: 
 3715: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 3716: @node search-ambcond,  , search-idef, The optional Search-Order word set
 3717: @subsection Ambiguous conditions
 3718: @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 3719: 
 3720: @table @i
 3721: 
 3722: @item changing the compilation wordlist (during compilation):
 3723: The word is entered into the wordlist that was the compilation wordlist
 3724: at the start of the definition. Any changes to the name field (e.g.,
 3725: @code{immediate}) or the code field (e.g., when executing @code{DOES>})
 3726: are applied to the latest defined word (as reported by @code{last} or
 3727: @code{lastxt}), if possible, irrespective of the compilation wordlist.
 3728: 
 3729: @item search order empty (@code{previous}):
 3730: @code{abort" Vocstack empty"}.
 3731: 
 3732: @item too many word lists in search order (@code{also}):
 3733: @code{abort" Vocstack full"}.
 3734: 
 3735: @end table
 3736: 
 3737: @node Model, Integrating Gforth, ANS conformance, Top
 3738: @chapter Model
 3739: 
 3740: This chapter has yet to be written. It will contain information, on
 3741: which internal structures you can rely.
 3742: 
 3743: @node Integrating Gforth, Emacs and Gforth, Model, Top
 3744: @chapter Integrating Gforth into C programs
 3745: 
 3746: This is not yet implemented.
 3747: 
 3748: Several people like to use Forth as scripting language for applications
 3749: that are otherwise written in C, C++, or some other language.
 3750: 
 3751: The Forth system ATLAST provides facilities for embedding it into
 3752: applications; unfortunately it has several disadvantages: most
 3753: importantly, it is not based on ANS Forth, and it is apparently dead
 3754: (i.e., not developed further and not supported). The facilities
 3755: provided by Gforth in this area are inspired by ATLASTs facilities, so
 3756: making the switch should not be hard.
 3757: 
 3758: We also tried to design the interface such that it can easily be
 3759: implemented by other Forth systems, so that we may one day arrive at a
 3760: standardized interface. Such a standard interface would allow you to
 3761: replace the Forth system without having to rewrite C code.
 3762: 
 3763: You embed the Gforth interpreter by linking with the library
 3764: @code{libgforth.a} (give the compiler the option @code{-lgforth}).  All
 3765: global symbols in this library that belong to the interface, have the
 3766: prefix @code{forth_}. (Global symbols that are used internally have the
 3767: prefix @code{gforth_}).
 3768: 
 3769: You can include the declarations of Forth types and the functions and
 3770: variables of the interface with @code{#include <forth.h>}.
 3771: 
 3772: Types.
 3773: 
 3774: Variables.
 3775: 
 3776: Data and FP Stack pointer. Area sizes.
 3777: 
 3778: functions.
 3779: 
 3780: forth_init(imagefile)
 3781: forth_evaluate(string) exceptions?
 3782: forth_goto(address) (or forth_execute(xt)?)
 3783: forth_continue() (a corountining mechanism)
 3784: 
 3785: Adding primitives.
 3786: 
 3787: No checking.
 3788: 
 3789: Signals?
 3790: 
 3791: Accessing the Stacks
 3792: 
 3793: @node Emacs and Gforth, Internals, Integrating Gforth, Top
 3794: @chapter Emacs and Gforth
 3795: 
 3796: Gforth comes with @file{gforth.el}, an improved version of
 3797: @file{forth.el} by Goran Rydqvist (included in the TILE package). The
 3798: improvements are a better (but still not perfect) handling of
 3799: indentation. I have also added comment paragraph filling (@kbd{M-q}),
 3800: commenting (@kbd{C-x \}) and uncommenting (@kbd{C-u C-x \}) regions and
 3801: removing debugging tracers (@kbd{C-x ~}, @pxref{Debugging}). I left the
 3802: stuff I do not use alone, even though some of it only makes sense for
 3803: TILE. To get a description of these features, enter Forth mode and type
 3804: @kbd{C-h m}.
 3805: 
 3806: In addition, Gforth supports Emacs quite well: The source code locations
 3807: given in error messages, debugging output (from @code{~~}) and failed
 3808: assertion messages are in the right format for Emacs' compilation mode
 3809: (@pxref{Compilation, , Running Compilations under Emacs, emacs, Emacs
 3810: Manual}) so the source location corresponding to an error or other
 3811: message is only a few keystrokes away (@kbd{C-x `} for the next error,
 3812: @kbd{C-c C-c} for the error under the cursor).
 3813: 
 3814: Also, if you @code{include} @file{etags.fs}, a new @file{TAGS} file
 3815: (@pxref{Tags, , Tags Tables, emacs, Emacs Manual}) will be produced that
 3816: contains the definitions of all words defined afterwards. You can then
 3817: find the source for a word using @kbd{M-.}. Note that emacs can use
 3818: several tags files at the same time (e.g., one for the Gforth sources
 3819: and one for your program, @pxref{Select Tags Table,,Selecting a Tags
 3820: Table,emacs, Emacs Manual}). The TAGS file for the preloaded words is
 3821: @file{$(datadir)/gforth/$(VERSION)/TAGS} (e.g.,
 3822: @file{/usr/local/share/gforth/0.2.0/TAGS}).
 3823: 
 3824: To get all these benefits, add the following lines to your @file{.emacs}
 3825: file:
 3826: 
 3827: @example
 3828: (autoload 'forth-mode "gforth.el")
 3829: (setq auto-mode-alist (cons '("\\.fs\\'" . forth-mode) auto-mode-alist))
 3830: @end example
 3831: 
 3832: @node Internals, Bugs, Emacs and Gforth, Top
 3833: @chapter Internals
 3834: 
 3835: Reading this section is not necessary for programming with Gforth. It
 3836: should be helpful for finding your way in the Gforth sources.
 3837: 
 3838: The ideas in this section have also been published in the papers
 3839: @cite{ANS fig/GNU/??? Forth} (in German) by Bernd Paysan, presented at
 3840: the Forth-Tagung '93 and @cite{A Portable Forth Engine} by M. Anton
 3841: Ertl, presented at EuroForth '93; the latter is available at
 3842: @*@file{http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/papers/ertl93.ps.Z}.
 3843: 
 3844: @menu
 3845: * Portability::                 
 3846: * Threading::                   
 3847: * Primitives::                  
 3848: * System Architecture::         
 3849: * Performance::                 
 3850: @end menu
 3851: 
 3852: @node Portability, Threading, Internals, Internals
 3853: @section Portability
 3854: 
 3855: One of the main goals of the effort is availability across a wide range
 3856: of personal machines. fig-Forth, and, to a lesser extent, F83, achieved
 3857: this goal by manually coding the engine in assembly language for several
 3858: then-popular processors. This approach is very labor-intensive and the
 3859: results are short-lived due to progress in computer architecture.
 3860: 
 3861: Others have avoided this problem by coding in C, e.g., Mitch Bradley
 3862: (cforth), Mikael Patel (TILE) and Dirk Zoller (pfe). This approach is
 3863: particularly popular for UNIX-based Forths due to the large variety of
 3864: architectures of UNIX machines. Unfortunately an implementation in C
 3865: does not mix well with the goals of efficiency and with using
 3866: traditional techniques: Indirect or direct threading cannot be expressed
 3867: in C, and switch threading, the fastest technique available in C, is
 3868: significantly slower. Another problem with C is that it's very
 3869: cumbersome to express double integer arithmetic.
 3870: 
 3871: Fortunately, there is a portable language that does not have these
 3872: limitations: GNU C, the version of C processed by the GNU C compiler
 3873: (@pxref{C Extensions, , Extensions to the C Language Family, gcc.info,
 3874: GNU C Manual}). Its labels as values feature (@pxref{Labels as Values, ,
 3875: Labels as Values, gcc.info, GNU C Manual}) makes direct and indirect
 3876: threading possible, its @code{long long} type (@pxref{Long Long, ,
 3877: Double-Word Integers, gcc.info, GNU C Manual}) corresponds to Forth's
 3878: double numbers@footnote{Unfortunately, long longs are not implemented
 3879: properly on all machines (e.g., on alpha-osf1, long longs are only 64
 3880: bits, the same size as longs (and pointers), but they should be twice as
 3881: long according to @ref{Long Long, , Double-Word Integers, gcc.info, GNU
 3882: C Manual}). So, we had to implement doubles in C after all. Still, on
 3883: most machines we can use long longs and achieve better performance than
 3884: with the emulation package.}. GNU C is available for free on all
 3885: important (and many unimportant) UNIX machines, VMS, 80386s running
 3886: MS-DOS, the Amiga, and the Atari ST, so a Forth written in GNU C can run
 3887: on all these machines.
 3888: 
 3889: Writing in a portable language has the reputation of producing code that
 3890: is slower than assembly. For our Forth engine we repeatedly looked at
 3891: the code produced by the compiler and eliminated most compiler-induced
 3892: inefficiencies by appropriate changes in the source-code.
 3893: 
 3894: However, register allocation cannot be portably influenced by the
 3895: programmer, leading to some inefficiencies on register-starved
 3896: machines. We use explicit register declarations (@pxref{Explicit Reg
 3897: Vars, , Variables in Specified Registers, gcc.info, GNU C Manual}) to
 3898: improve the speed on some machines. They are turned on by using the
 3899: @code{gcc} switch @code{-DFORCE_REG}. Unfortunately, this feature not
 3900: only depends on the machine, but also on the compiler version: On some
 3901: machines some compiler versions produce incorrect code when certain
 3902: explicit register declarations are used. So by default
 3903: @code{-DFORCE_REG} is not used.
 3904: 
 3905: @node Threading, Primitives, Portability, Internals
 3906: @section Threading
 3907: 
 3908: GNU C's labels as values extension (available since @code{gcc-2.0},
 3909: @pxref{Labels as Values, , Labels as Values, gcc.info, GNU C Manual})
 3910: makes it possible to take the address of @var{label} by writing
 3911: @code{&&@var{label}}.  This address can then be used in a statement like
 3912: @code{goto *@var{address}}. I.e., @code{goto *&&x} is the same as
 3913: @code{goto x}.
 3914: 
 3915: With this feature an indirect threaded NEXT looks like:
 3916: @example
 3917: cfa = *ip++;
 3918: ca = *cfa;
 3919: goto *ca;
 3920: @end example
 3921: For those unfamiliar with the names: @code{ip} is the Forth instruction
 3922: pointer; the @code{cfa} (code-field address) corresponds to ANS Forths
 3923: execution token and points to the code field of the next word to be
 3924: executed; The @code{ca} (code address) fetched from there points to some
 3925: executable code, e.g., a primitive or the colon definition handler
 3926: @code{docol}.
 3927: 
 3928: Direct threading is even simpler:
 3929: @example
 3930: ca = *ip++;
 3931: goto *ca;
 3932: @end example
 3933: 
 3934: Of course we have packaged the whole thing neatly in macros called
 3935: @code{NEXT} and @code{NEXT1} (the part of NEXT after fetching the cfa).
 3936: 
 3937: @menu
 3938: * Scheduling::                  
 3939: * Direct or Indirect Threaded?::  
 3940: * DOES>::                       
 3941: @end menu
 3942: 
 3943: @node Scheduling, Direct or Indirect Threaded?, Threading, Threading
 3944: @subsection Scheduling
 3945: 
 3946: There is a little complication: Pipelined and superscalar processors,
 3947: i.e., RISC and some modern CISC machines can process independent
 3948: instructions while waiting for the results of an instruction. The
 3949: compiler usually reorders (schedules) the instructions in a way that
 3950: achieves good usage of these delay slots. However, on our first tries
 3951: the compiler did not do well on scheduling primitives. E.g., for
 3952: @code{+} implemented as
 3953: @example
 3954: n=sp[0]+sp[1];
 3955: sp++;
 3956: sp[0]=n;
 3957: NEXT;
 3958: @end example
 3959: the NEXT comes strictly after the other code, i.e., there is nearly no
 3960: scheduling. After a little thought the problem becomes clear: The
 3961: compiler cannot know that sp and ip point to different addresses (and
 3962: the version of @code{gcc} we used would not know it even if it was
 3963: possible), so it could not move the load of the cfa above the store to
 3964: the TOS. Indeed the pointers could be the same, if code on or very near
 3965: the top of stack were executed. In the interest of speed we chose to
 3966: forbid this probably unused ``feature'' and helped the compiler in
 3967: scheduling: NEXT is divided into the loading part (@code{NEXT_P1}) and
 3968: the goto part (@code{NEXT_P2}). @code{+} now looks like:
 3969: @example
 3970: n=sp[0]+sp[1];
 3971: sp++;
 3972: NEXT_P1;
 3973: sp[0]=n;
 3974: NEXT_P2;
 3975: @end example
 3976: This can be scheduled optimally by the compiler.
 3977: 
 3978: This division can be turned off with the switch @code{-DCISC_NEXT}. This
 3979: switch is on by default on machines that do not profit from scheduling
 3980: (e.g., the 80386), in order to preserve registers.
 3981: 
 3982: @node Direct or Indirect Threaded?, DOES>, Scheduling, Threading
 3983: @subsection Direct or Indirect Threaded?
 3984: 
 3985: Both! After packaging the nasty details in macro definitions we
 3986: realized that we could switch between direct and indirect threading by
 3987: simply setting a compilation flag (@code{-DDIRECT_THREADED}) and
 3988: defining a few machine-specific macros for the direct-threading case.
 3989: On the Forth level we also offer access words that hide the
 3990: differences between the threading methods (@pxref{Threading Words}).
 3991: 
 3992: Indirect threading is implemented completely
 3993: machine-independently. Direct threading needs routines for creating
 3994: jumps to the executable code (e.g. to docol or dodoes). These routines
 3995: are inherently machine-dependent, but they do not amount to many source
 3996: lines. I.e., even porting direct threading to a new machine is a small
 3997: effort.
 3998: 
 3999: @node DOES>,  , Direct or Indirect Threaded?, Threading
 4000: @subsection DOES>
 4001: One of the most complex parts of a Forth engine is @code{dodoes}, i.e.,
 4002: the chunk of code executed by every word defined by a
 4003: @code{CREATE}...@code{DOES>} pair. The main problem here is: How to find
 4004: the Forth code to be executed, i.e. the code after the @code{DOES>} (the
 4005: DOES-code)? There are two solutions:
 4006: 
 4007: In fig-Forth the code field points directly to the dodoes and the
 4008: DOES-code address is stored in the cell after the code address
 4009: (i.e. at cfa cell+). It may seem that this solution is illegal in the
 4010: Forth-79 and all later standards, because in fig-Forth this address
 4011: lies in the body (which is illegal in these standards). However, by
 4012: making the code field larger for all words this solution becomes legal
 4013: again. We use this approach for the indirect threaded version. Leaving
 4014: a cell unused in most words is a bit wasteful, but on the machines we
 4015: are targetting this is hardly a problem. The other reason for having a
 4016: code field size of two cells is to avoid having different image files
 4017: for direct and indirect threaded systems (@pxref{System Architecture}).
 4018: 
 4019: The other approach is that the code field points or jumps to the cell
 4020: after @code{DOES}. In this variant there is a jump to @code{dodoes} at
 4021: this address. @code{dodoes} can then get the DOES-code address by
 4022: computing the code address, i.e., the address of the jump to dodoes,
 4023: and add the length of that jump field. A variant of this is to have a
 4024: call to @code{dodoes} after the @code{DOES>}; then the return address
 4025: (which can be found in the return register on RISCs) is the DOES-code
 4026: address. Since the two cells available in the code field are usually
 4027: used up by the jump to the code address in direct threading, we use
 4028: this approach for direct threading. We did not want to add another
 4029: cell to the code field.
 4030: 
 4031: @node Primitives, System Architecture, Threading, Internals
 4032: @section Primitives
 4033: 
 4034: @menu
 4035: * Automatic Generation::        
 4036: * TOS Optimization::            
 4037: * Produced code::               
 4038: @end menu
 4039: 
 4040: @node Automatic Generation, TOS Optimization, Primitives, Primitives
 4041: @subsection Automatic Generation
 4042: 
 4043: Since the primitives are implemented in a portable language, there is no
 4044: longer any need to minimize the number of primitives. On the contrary,
 4045: having many primitives is an advantage: speed. In order to reduce the
 4046: number of errors in primitives and to make programming them easier, we
 4047: provide a tool, the primitive generator (@file{prims2x.fs}), that
 4048: automatically generates most (and sometimes all) of the C code for a
 4049: primitive from the stack effect notation.  The source for a primitive
 4050: has the following form:
 4051: 
 4052: @format
 4053: @var{Forth-name}	@var{stack-effect}	@var{category}	[@var{pronounc.}]
 4054: [@code{""}@var{glossary entry}@code{""}]
 4055: @var{C code}
 4056: [@code{:}
 4057: @var{Forth code}]
 4058: @end format
 4059: 
 4060: The items in brackets are optional. The category and glossary fields
 4061: are there for generating the documentation, the Forth code is there
 4062: for manual implementations on machines without GNU C. E.g., the source
 4063: for the primitive @code{+} is:
 4064: @example
 4065: +    n1 n2 -- n    core    plus
 4066: n = n1+n2;
 4067: @end example
 4068: 
 4069: This looks like a specification, but in fact @code{n = n1+n2} is C
 4070: code. Our primitive generation tool extracts a lot of information from
 4071: the stack effect notations@footnote{We use a one-stack notation, even
 4072: though we have separate data and floating-point stacks; The separate
 4073: notation can be generated easily from the unified notation.}: The number
 4074: of items popped from and pushed on the stack, their type, and by what
 4075: name they are referred to in the C code. It then generates a C code
 4076: prelude and postlude for each primitive. The final C code for @code{+}
 4077: looks like this:
 4078: 
 4079: @example
 4080: I_plus:	/* + ( n1 n2 -- n ) */  /* label, stack effect */
 4081: /*  */                          /* documentation */
 4082: @{
 4083: DEF_CA                          /* definition of variable ca (indirect threading) */
 4084: Cell n1;                        /* definitions of variables */
 4085: Cell n2;
 4086: Cell n;
 4087: n1 = (Cell) sp[1];              /* input */
 4088: n2 = (Cell) TOS;
 4089: sp += 1;                        /* stack adjustment */
 4090: NAME("+")                       /* debugging output (with -DDEBUG) */
 4091: @{
 4092: n = n1+n2;                      /* C code taken from the source */
 4093: @}
 4094: NEXT_P1;                        /* NEXT part 1 */
 4095: TOS = (Cell)n;                  /* output */
 4096: NEXT_P2;                        /* NEXT part 2 */
 4097: @}
 4098: @end example
 4099: 
 4100: This looks long and inefficient, but the GNU C compiler optimizes quite
 4101: well and produces optimal code for @code{+} on, e.g., the R3000 and the
 4102: HP RISC machines: Defining the @code{n}s does not produce any code, and
 4103: using them as intermediate storage also adds no cost.
 4104: 
 4105: There are also other optimizations, that are not illustrated by this
 4106: example: Assignments between simple variables are usually for free (copy
 4107: propagation). If one of the stack items is not used by the primitive
 4108: (e.g.  in @code{drop}), the compiler eliminates the load from the stack
 4109: (dead code elimination). On the other hand, there are some things that
 4110: the compiler does not do, therefore they are performed by
 4111: @file{prims2x.fs}: The compiler does not optimize code away that stores
 4112: a stack item to the place where it just came from (e.g., @code{over}).
 4113: 
 4114: While programming a primitive is usually easy, there are a few cases
 4115: where the programmer has to take the actions of the generator into
 4116: account, most notably @code{?dup}, but also words that do not (always)
 4117: fall through to NEXT.
 4118: 
 4119: @node TOS Optimization, Produced code, Automatic Generation, Primitives
 4120: @subsection TOS Optimization
 4121: 
 4122: An important optimization for stack machine emulators, e.g., Forth
 4123: engines, is keeping  one or more of the top stack items in
 4124: registers.  If a word has the stack effect @var{in1}...@var{inx} @code{--}
 4125: @var{out1}...@var{outy}, keeping the top @var{n} items in registers
 4126: @itemize @bullet
 4127: @item
 4128: is better than keeping @var{n-1} items, if @var{x>=n} and @var{y>=n},
 4129: due to fewer loads from and stores to the stack.
 4130: @item is slower than keeping @var{n-1} items, if @var{x<>y} and @var{x<n} and
 4131: @var{y<n}, due to additional moves between registers.
 4132: @end itemize
 4133: 
 4134: In particular, keeping one item in a register is never a disadvantage,
 4135: if there are enough registers. Keeping two items in registers is a
 4136: disadvantage for frequent words like @code{?branch}, constants,
 4137: variables, literals and @code{i}. Therefore our generator only produces
 4138: code that keeps zero or one items in registers. The generated C code
 4139: covers both cases; the selection between these alternatives is made at
 4140: C-compile time using the switch @code{-DUSE_TOS}. @code{TOS} in the C
 4141: code for @code{+} is just a simple variable name in the one-item case,
 4142: otherwise it is a macro that expands into @code{sp[0]}. Note that the
 4143: GNU C compiler tries to keep simple variables like @code{TOS} in
 4144: registers, and it usually succeeds, if there are enough registers.
 4145: 
 4146: The primitive generator performs the TOS optimization for the
 4147: floating-point stack, too (@code{-DUSE_FTOS}). For floating-point
 4148: operations the benefit of this optimization is even larger:
 4149: floating-point operations take quite long on most processors, but can be
 4150: performed in parallel with other operations as long as their results are
 4151: not used. If the FP-TOS is kept in a register, this works. If
 4152: it is kept on the stack, i.e., in memory, the store into memory has to
 4153: wait for the result of the floating-point operation, lengthening the
 4154: execution time of the primitive considerably.
 4155: 
 4156: The TOS optimization makes the automatic generation of primitives a
 4157: bit more complicated. Just replacing all occurrences of @code{sp[0]} by
 4158: @code{TOS} is not sufficient. There are some special cases to
 4159: consider:
 4160: @itemize @bullet
 4161: @item In the case of @code{dup ( w -- w w )} the generator must not
 4162: eliminate the store to the original location of the item on the stack,
 4163: if the TOS optimization is turned on.
 4164: @item Primitives with stack effects of the form @code{--}
 4165: @var{out1}...@var{outy} must store the TOS to the stack at the start.
 4166: Likewise, primitives with the stack effect @var{in1}...@var{inx} @code{--}
 4167: must load the TOS from the stack at the end. But for the null stack
 4168: effect @code{--} no stores or loads should be generated.
 4169: @end itemize
 4170: 
 4171: @node Produced code,  , TOS Optimization, Primitives
 4172: @subsection Produced code
 4173: 
 4174: To see what assembly code is produced for the primitives on your machine
 4175: with your compiler and your flag settings, type @code{make engine.s} and
 4176: look at the resulting file @file{engine.s}.
 4177: 
 4178: @node System Architecture, Performance, Primitives, Internals
 4179: @section System Architecture
 4180: 
 4181: Our Forth system consists not only of primitives, but also of
 4182: definitions written in Forth. Since the Forth compiler itself belongs
 4183: to those definitions, it is not possible to start the system with the
 4184: primitives and the Forth source alone. Therefore we provide the Forth
 4185: code as an image file in nearly executable form. At the start of the
 4186: system a C routine loads the image file into memory, sets up the
 4187: memory (stacks etc.) according to information in the image file, and
 4188: starts executing Forth code.
 4189: 
 4190: The image file format is a compromise between the goals of making it
 4191: easy to generate image files and making them portable. The easiest way
 4192: to generate an image file is to just generate a memory dump. However,
 4193: this kind of image file cannot be used on a different machine, or on
 4194: the next version of the engine on the same machine, it even might not
 4195: work with the same engine compiled by a different version of the C
 4196: compiler. We would like to have as few versions of the image file as
 4197: possible, because we do not want to distribute many versions of the
 4198: same image file, and to make it easy for the users to use their image
 4199: files on many machines. We currently need to create a different image
 4200: file for machines with different cell sizes and different byte order
 4201: (little- or big-endian)@footnote{We are considering adding information to the
 4202: image file that enables the loader to change the byte order.}.
 4203: 
 4204: Forth code that is going to end up in a portable image file has to
 4205: comply to some restrictions: addresses have to be stored in memory with
 4206: special words (@code{A!}, @code{A,}, etc.) in order to make the code
 4207: relocatable. Cells, floats, etc., have to be stored at the natural
 4208: alignment boundaries@footnote{E.g., store floats (8 bytes) at an address
 4209: dividable by~8. This happens automatically in our system when you use
 4210: the ANS Forth alignment words.}, in order to avoid alignment faults on
 4211: machines with stricter alignment. The image file is produced by a
 4212: metacompiler (@file{cross.fs}).
 4213: 
 4214: So, unlike the image file of Mitch Bradleys @code{cforth}, our image
 4215: file is not directly executable, but has to undergo some manipulations
 4216: during loading. Address relocation is performed at image load-time, not
 4217: at run-time. The loader also has to replace tokens standing for
 4218: primitive calls with the appropriate code-field addresses (or code
 4219: addresses in the case of direct threading).
 4220: 
 4221: @node  Performance,  , System Architecture, Internals
 4222: @section Performance
 4223: 
 4224: On RISCs the Gforth engine is very close to optimal; i.e., it is usually
 4225: impossible to write a significantly faster engine.
 4226: 
 4227: On register-starved machines like the 386 architecture processors
 4228: improvements are possible, because @code{gcc} does not utilize the
 4229: registers as well as a human, even with explicit register declarations;
 4230: e.g., Bernd Beuster wrote a Forth system fragment in assembly language
 4231: and hand-tuned it for the 486; this system is 1.19 times faster on the
 4232: Sieve benchmark on a 486DX2/66 than Gforth compiled with
 4233: @code{gcc-2.6.3} with @code{-DFORCE_REG}.
 4234: 
 4235: However, this potential advantage of assembly language implementations
 4236: is not necessarily realized in complete Forth systems: We compared
 4237: Gforth (direct threaded, compiled with @code{gcc-2.6.3} and
 4238: @code{-DFORCE_REG}) with Win32Forth 1.2093, LMI's NT Forth (Beta, May
 4239: 1994) and Eforth (with and without peephole (aka pinhole) optimization
 4240: of the threaded code); all these systems were written in assembly
 4241: language. We also compared Gforth with three systems written in C:
 4242: PFE-0.9.14 (compiled with @code{gcc-2.6.3} with the default
 4243: configuration for Linux: @code{-O2 -fomit-frame-pointer -DUSE_REGS
 4244: -DUNROLL_NEXT}), ThisForth Beta (compiled with gcc-2.6.3 -O3
 4245: -fomit-frame-pointer; ThisForth employs peephole optimization of the
 4246: threaded code) and TILE (compiled with @code{make opt}). We benchmarked
 4247: Gforth, PFE, ThisForth and TILE on a 486DX2/66 under Linux. Kenneth
 4248: O'Heskin kindly provided the results for Win32Forth and NT Forth on a
 4249: 486DX2/66 with similar memory performance under Windows NT. Marcel
 4250: Hendrix ported Eforth to Linux, then extended it to run the benchmarks,
 4251: added the peephole optimizer, ran the benchmarks and reported the
 4252: results.
 4253:  
 4254: We used four small benchmarks: the ubiquitous Sieve; bubble-sorting and
 4255: matrix multiplication come from the Stanford integer benchmarks and have
 4256: been translated into Forth by Martin Fraeman; we used the versions
 4257: included in the TILE Forth package, but with bigger data set sizes; and
 4258: a recursive Fibonacci number computation for benchmarking calling
 4259: performance. The following table shows the time taken for the benchmarks
 4260: scaled by the time taken by Gforth (in other words, it shows the speedup
 4261: factor that Gforth achieved over the other systems).
 4262: 
 4263: @example
 4264: relative      Win32-    NT       eforth       This-
 4265:   time  Gforth Forth Forth eforth  +opt   PFE Forth  TILE
 4266: sieve     1.00  1.39  1.14   1.39  0.85  1.58  3.18  8.58
 4267: bubble    1.00  1.31  1.41   1.48  0.88  1.50        3.88
 4268: matmul    1.00  1.47  1.35   1.46  0.74  1.58        4.09
 4269: fib       1.00  1.52  1.34   1.22  0.86  1.74  2.99  4.30
 4270: @end example
 4271: 
 4272: You may find the good performance of Gforth compared with the systems
 4273: written in assembly language quite surprising. One important reason for
 4274: the disappointing performance of these systems is probably that they are
 4275: not written optimally for the 486 (e.g., they use the @code{lods}
 4276: instruction). In addition, Win32Forth uses a comfortable, but costly
 4277: method for relocating the Forth image: like @code{cforth}, it computes
 4278: the actual addresses at run time, resulting in two address computations
 4279: per NEXT (@pxref{System Architecture}).
 4280: 
 4281: Only Eforth with the peephole optimizer performs comparable to
 4282: Gforth. The speedups achieved with peephole optimization of threaded
 4283: code are quite remarkable. Adding a peephole optimizer to Gforth should
 4284: cause similar speedups.
 4285: 
 4286: The speedup of Gforth over PFE, ThisForth and TILE can be easily
 4287: explained with the self-imposed restriction to standard C, which makes
 4288: efficient threading impossible (however, the measured implementation of
 4289: PFE uses a GNU C extension: @ref{Global Reg Vars, , Defining Global
 4290: Register Variables, gcc.info, GNU C Manual}).  Moreover, current C
 4291: compilers have a hard time optimizing other aspects of the ThisForth
 4292: and the TILE source.
 4293: 
 4294: Note that the performance of Gforth on 386 architecture processors
 4295: varies widely with the version of @code{gcc} used. E.g., @code{gcc-2.5.8}
 4296: failed to allocate any of the virtual machine registers into real
 4297: machine registers by itself and would not work correctly with explicit
 4298: register declarations, giving a 1.3 times slower engine (on a 486DX2/66
 4299: running the Sieve) than the one measured above.
 4300: 
 4301: In @cite{Translating Forth to Efficient C} by M. Anton Ertl and Martin
 4302: Maierhofer (presented at EuroForth '95), an indirect threaded version of
 4303: Gforth is compared with Win32Forth, NT Forth, PFE, and ThisForth; that
 4304: version of Gforth is 2\%@minus{}8\% slower on a 486 than the version
 4305: used here. The paper available at
 4306: @*@file{http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/papers/ertl&maierhofer95.ps.gz};
 4307: it also contains numbers for some native code systems. You can find
 4308: numbers for Gforth on various machines in @file{Benchres}.
 4309: 
 4310: @node Bugs, Origin, Internals, Top
 4311: @chapter Bugs
 4312: 
 4313: Known bugs are described in the file BUGS in the Gforth distribution.
 4314: 
 4315: If you find a bug, please send a bug report to
 4316: @code{bug-gforth@@gnu.ai.mit.edu}. A bug report should
 4317: describe the Gforth version used (it is announced at the start of an
 4318: interactive Gforth session), the machine and operating system (on Unix
 4319: systems you can use @code{uname -a} to produce this information), the
 4320: installation options (send the @code{config.status} file), and a
 4321: complete list of changes you (or your installer) have made to the Gforth
 4322: sources (if any); it should contain a program (or a sequence of keyboard
 4323: commands) that reproduces the bug and a description of what you think
 4324: constitutes the buggy behaviour.
 4325: 
 4326: For a thorough guide on reporting bugs read @ref{Bug Reporting, , How
 4327: to Report Bugs, gcc.info, GNU C Manual}.
 4328: 
 4329: 
 4330: @node Origin, Word Index, Bugs, Top
 4331: @chapter Authors and Ancestors of Gforth
 4332: 
 4333: @section Authors and Contributors
 4334: 
 4335: The Gforth project was started in mid-1992 by Bernd Paysan and Anton
 4336: Ertl. The third major author was Jens Wilke.  Lennart Benschop (who was
 4337: one of Gforth's first users, in mid-1993) and Stuart Ramsden inspired us
 4338: with their continuous feedback. Lennart Benshop contributed
 4339: @file{glosgen.fs}, while Stuart Ramsden has been working on automatic
 4340: support for calling C libraries. Helpful comments also came from Paul
 4341: Kleinrubatscher, Christian Pirker, Dirk Zoller, Marcel Hendrix, John
 4342: Wavrik, Barrie Stott and Marc de Groot.
 4343: 
 4344: Gforth also owes a lot to the authors of the tools we used (GCC, CVS,
 4345: and autoconf, among others), and to the creators of the Internet: Gforth
 4346: was developed across the Internet, and its authors have not met
 4347: physically yet.
 4348: 
 4349: @section Pedigree
 4350: 
 4351: Gforth descends from BigForth (1993) and fig-Forth. Gforth and PFE (by
 4352: Dirk Zoller) will cross-fertilize each other. Of course, a significant
 4353: part of the design of Gforth was prescribed by ANS Forth.
 4354: 
 4355: Bernd Paysan wrote BigForth, a descendent from TurboForth, an unreleased
 4356: 32 bit native code version of VolksForth for the Atari ST, written
 4357: mostly by Dietrich Weineck.
 4358: 
 4359: VolksForth descends from F83. It was written by Klaus Schleisiek, Bernd
 4360: Pennemann, Georg Rehfeld and Dietrich Weineck for the C64 (called
 4361: UltraForth there) in the mid-80s and ported to the Atari ST in 1986.
 4362: 
 4363: Henry Laxen and Mike Perry wrote F83 as a model implementation of the
 4364: Forth-83 standard. !! Pedigree? When?
 4365: 
 4366: A team led by Bill Ragsdale implemented fig-Forth on many processors in
 4367: 1979. Robert Selzer and Bill Ragsdale developed the original
 4368: implementation of fig-Forth for the 6502 based on microForth.
 4369: 
 4370: The principal architect of microForth was Dean Sanderson. microForth was
 4371: FORTH, Inc.'s first off-the-shelf product. It was developped in 1976 for
 4372: the 1802, and subsequently implemented on the 8080, the 6800 and the
 4373: Z80.
 4374: 
 4375: All earlier Forth systems were custom-made, usually by Charles Moore,
 4376: who discovered (as he puts it) Forth during the late 60s. The first full
 4377: Forth existed in 1971.
 4378: 
 4379: A part of the information in this section comes from @cite{The Evolution
 4380: of Forth} by Elizabeth D. Rather, Donald R. Colburn and Charles
 4381: H. Moore, presented at the HOPL-II conference and preprinted in SIGPLAN
 4382: Notices 28(3), 1993.  You can find more historical and genealogical
 4383: information about Forth there.
 4384: 
 4385: @node Word Index, Node Index, Origin, Top
 4386: @chapter Word Index
 4387: 
 4388: This index is as incomplete as the manual. Each word is listed with
 4389: stack effect and wordset.
 4390: 
 4391: @printindex fn
 4392: 
 4393: @node Node Index,  , Word Index, Top
 4394: @chapter Node Index
 4395: 
 4396: This index is even less complete than the manual.
 4397: 
 4398: @contents
 4399: @bye
 4400: 

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