Category : Forth Source Code
Archive   : ZEN15A.ZIP
Filename : ZEN.DOC
ZEN 1.15à is a model implementation of the ANS Forth Basis Document,
revision BASIS 15. This document is currently (April 2, 1991) under
a letter ballot to forward it to X3 as the draft proposal ANSI Forth.
Should the letter ballot pass, SPARC may review this document during
their May 7, 1991 meeting. If approved, it would then go out for a
six month public review.
To obtain a copy of BASIS 15, send a check for $15,
payable to Forth, Inc., to the
----------------------
ANS ASC X3/X3J14 Technical Committee
c/o Forth, Inc.
111 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Suite 300
Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
ZEN 1.15à is not endorsed by the ANS X3J14 committee. It is a
working document. No guarantees are made to its accuracy or fitness.
ZEN 1.15à is an ANS Forth System with the following words sets:
CORE and all CORE extensions
BLOCK and all BLOCK extensions
DOUBLE and all DOUBLE extensions
ERROR that is CATCH and THROW
FILE and all FILE extensions
SEARCH and all SEARCH extensions
STRING and all STRING extensions except LEX
The following TOOLKIT extensions:
.S ? AHEAD BYE DUMP EKEY EMIT? KEY? SO STILL and WORDS
Most of these words are included in the ZEN.EXE nucleus. A few are
separated into the file OPTIONS.SRC. To include these options, change
the appropriate 0 .IF statements to 1 .IF in OPTIONS.SRC. Execute
ZEN.EXE and type:
INCLUDE OPTIONS
To save the amended nucleus, type:
SAVE
This creates a new executable file called SAVE.EXE which can be renamed.
Extra features
--------------
In addition to the wordsets and extensions listed above, ZEN includes
many additional words which are documented as source code in the files
*.SRC.
SAVE for saving an executable snapshot of the nucleus plus any
application words added with LOAD or INCLUDE
Conditional compilation support: .IF .ELSE and .THEN (nestable).
EXIST "name" is true if name is found in the current search order.
EMPTY and GUARD to save and restore the state of the dictionary.
PATCH to revector any old colon or code definition to any new one.
Any words based on the old definitions will use the new ones instead.
A rich string extension based on a 1 Kbyte rotating string buffer.
See SBALLOT STRCAT STRPCK STRNDX -TEXT and UPCASE
A generic BIOS or DOS interrupt call via INT86
See regAX ... regES and flags .
Words to fetch, store, or examine anywhere in the 1 Mbyte address space:
LC@ LC! L@ L! LCMOVE LDUMP CSEG and DSEG
Fetch or store from the port address space:
PC@ PC! P@ and P!
Documentation requirements
--------------------------
The address unit is 8 integer bits (one byte). A character occupies one
address unit, ie, one byte. There are two 8-bit address units (bytes)
per cell. No special alignment is used, ie, the nucleus is byte-aligned.
Counted strings may be as long as 255 characters (plus count).
ZEN.EXE is written for the IBM PC family of byte-aligned, twos-complement
machine. The ranges for n +n u d +d ud wd and sys are determined by the
requirement to fit into 16-bit twos-complement cells.
The parameter and return stack sizes are currently set to 300 hex bytes
each. The dictionary and data space are currently set to 64 Kbytes each.
See ZEN.INC. The number of bytes remaining in the separate dictionary and
data spaces is display when ZEN boots, and can be printed at any time with
the command FYI (for your information).
The default input device is the keyboard via DOS interrupt 21h service
6 and 7. The default output device is the CRT screen via DOS interrupt
21h service 40h. EMIT passes all 8-bit characters on to DOS. The
character set used is the IBM PC 8-bit character set.
BLOCKs are read from and written to the file BLOCK.SCR on coldstart. If
this file does not exist, it is created. To extend the file, simply write
a new block to it.
ENVIRONMENT? is barely supported. It returns false to all queries.
EXPECT and ACCEPT support
not disturbed on
File names are passed unaltered to DOS and may include paths.
File lines are terminated with a
up to 128 bytes long.
File errors are returned as DOS ior results by file functions. If an
error occurs while interpreting a file or block, the line in question is
displayed along with the file name, and all nested files are closed. The
file identifier points to an array element containing the DOS fileid, the
file name, and current line number.
No assembler is provided. Application assembler definitions may be added
to the nucleus when ZEN.EXE is generated by incorporating them into the
file USER.INC. Regenerating ZEN.EXE requires the Borland Turbo Assembler
and Linker.
The minimum search order is: ONLY FORTH DEFINITIONS ALSO
The system prompt is: Ok
No specials provisions are made for arithmetic overflow. Arithmetic with
flags and characters is permitted. Symmetric division is the default.
To enable floored division, include the definitions in the file OPTIONS.SRC
Loop parameters are stored in-line. No separate flow-of-control stack is
provided.
PAD can be up to UNUSED bytes long. S" places an interpreted string at
PAD. The pictured output numeric conversion string can be up to 33
bytes long.
The MS clock has a granularity of about 18 Hz.
ABORT is implemented with a -1 THROW.
ABORT" is implemented with a -2 THROW. No other values are THROWn by
the nucleus.
The structure of a word list and all other implementation details can be
determined by examining the many assembler *.INC source files provided.
General exception conditions
----------------------------
If insufficient number of stack entries: ABORT" Stack?"
If a word is not found or is not a number, or
if the input stream is inadvertantly exhausted: ABORT" ?"
The following conditions are neither checked nor prevented. The result
of such exceptions is undefined:
Insufficient parameter or return stack space.
Execution of compiler words while interpreting.
Insufficient space in the dictionary.
Inappropriate and out-of-range arguments.
Overflow of pictured numeric output string.
Quotient out of range.
Parsed string overflow.
Word name too long.
Contents of input stream modified by program.
Division by zero returns a quotient of zero and a remainder
equal to the dividend.
Specific exception conditions
-----------------------------
' ['] FIND see word not found or not a number.
*/ / /MOD M*/ M/ M/MOD MOD see division by zero.
EXECUTE does not detect invalid execution tokens.
ABS CONVERT D>S do not detect result overflow.
ALSO does not detect too many word lists.
BLOCK BUFFER LOAD do not detect block number out of range.
Very nice! Thank you for this wonderful archive. I wonder why I found it only now. Long live the BBS file archives!
This is so awesome! 😀 I’d be cool if you could download an entire archive of this at once, though.
But one thing that puzzles me is the “mtswslnkmcjklsdlsbdmMICROSOFT” string. There is an article about it here. It is definitely worth a read: http://www.os2museum.com/wp/mtswslnk/