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MPE Forth Starter Kit CD
Legacy Mission CD

Last updated: 21 April 2004

Forth Starter Kit CD

The Forth Starter Kit CD contains complete versions of MPE's 32 bit ProForth for Windows and the 16 bit DOS Forth products, Modular Forth, PC PowerForth Plus and XRef3, with the manuals on the CD in PDF format, and costs only £25, US$ 45, Euro 37.

The Forth Starter Kit was highly recommended in Paul Frenger's "Forth Report" in the Monthly Notices of the ACM SigPLAN.

Officially, there isn't any technical support. But ... we will try to answer email to:
Tech-support@mpeltd.demon.co.uk

Legacy Mission CD

Designed for clients who have applications in the field that require ongoing maintenance and support, the Legacy Mission CD contains:

All the contents of the Forth Starter Kit,
All source code of these Forth systems and the MPE tools required to modify and rebuild them,
Redistribution rights for the MPE distributions and your modifications.

The included Forths

These Forths are ideal for learning Forth, and also for generating applications that will run on embedded PCs using Windows or DOS and 80x86 real mode CPUs. These Forths are to the Forth-83 standard, not to the current ANS standard. They are mature and stable products but are no longer being actively developed by MPE except on a consultancy basis. These packages run with all versions of Windows and DOS.

ProForth for Windows is the previous generation of 32 bit Windows Forth, and has been replaced by VFX Forth for Windows. ProForth for Windows v2.36 includes changes for Windows XP. Further details are available at ProForth for Windows. An ANS Forth compatibility harness is included.

Modular Forth is designed for generating large applications and features multiple modules with separate compilation. Modular Forth was the basis of many large successful DOS applications which are in use by major corporations. MPE's Forth 5 cross compilers were all built on Modular Forth.

PC PowerForth Plus is designed for small applications, including DOS TSRs, and includes the Code Stripper which will produce a minimum size application.

Modular Forth v3.7

Modular Forth is a fast 80x86 Forth-83 implementation that can use the full memory map of the PC without loss of speed due to the memory architecture. It was the first Forth to support separate compilation of modules and automatic load-time linking.

Rapid Development

Using Modular Forth leads to a very rapid development turn round due to its very high compilation rate, integrated editor, and the interactive nature of Forth. It is suitable for large team projects as it provides separate compilation of source modules, with early or late binding as appropriate.

Large Applications

You can write large applications in Modular Forth since there are no restrictions on code size (other than each module being no larger than 64k), and the Forth dynamic linker can be used as an overlay manager, allowing overall program size to be greater than 640k. Modular Forth is a powerful environment, for both program development and the finished application. It allows access to the hardware and operating system - the flexible three mode multi-tasker can even run in the background when other DOS programs have been spawned by the SHELL command.

Modules

Modules can be compiled separately from the main program, can have external references resolved at compile or load time (early or late binding), and can be resized to minimum space after development. Words within modules can be declared to be PUBLIC so that they can be accessed by other modules. The user defines which words are available for external use (export) by other modules, and can in turn reference words in other modules. This feature makes Modular Forth particularly suitable for use in large programs, as well as encouraging good programming practice. Because of the way Modular Forth’s structure is linked to the processor segmentation structure, Modular Forth does not suffer the speed penalties of other large memory models for the 80x86 processors. Other advantages of the module system are that the editor, assembler, and tools are not in the module being worked on, and so take no space away from that module. On completion needed modules can be resized to use minimum memory.

Multi-tasking, Interrupts, & Timers

The multi-tasker, interrupt, timer and list handler allows the following:- high or low level interrupts; patching into or creating new DOS interrupts; any number of single-shot or repetitive timers to be slaved from one master timer; three types of multi-tasking (two pre-emptive interrupt/timer/event driven, one cooperative round-robin); and rate control of tasks. All these are tied together by the list handling words.

Graphics

Graphics access is provided by the Modular Forth Windows and Graphics extension package, or by binding to MetaWINDOWS, or by the GEM interface.

The Modular Forth Windows and Graphics package provide source code for all its functions, and is fast and compact. The MetaWINDOWS package can be accessed either by linking or via the TSR version, and provides very comprehensive support, both in terms of functions and of supported graphics cards. The GEM graphics operating system is compatible across a large selection of machines and display controllers. GEM can draw pie charts, access mice, draw fancy pictures on your printer, and GEM applications are portable.

Windows & Menus

Apart from the GEM interface and the optional Forth Windows and Graphics package, Modular Forth is supplied with a text windows and menus packages. The windows package handles all the normal window functions, and full source of the windows code and an application example are provided. The menus package features short-cut keys or cursor selection, an easy application syntax, source code and examples.

Object Module Linking

Object module linking (to C, Pascal, Assembler, etc) is available through the standard DOS linker. Any package that can create a DOS standard .OBJ file can be used. Now there is no excuse for re-inventing the software package wheel. Simply choose the database, graphics, spreadsheet package you like, and link it into your Modular Forth Application. The instant interactive debug capability of Forth is now combined with the power of some of most extensive software libraries in the world. Example bindings are included for DesqView, Btrieve, and MetaWINDOWS.

Source Code

Most of the utilities are supplied in the form of source code. Modular Forth includes many examples, both short and long, of Forth practice. These examples include the documentation utilities from the TOOLS module, the windows and menus interfaces, the GEM interface, both the floating point packages, and much much more. In total, over 800k bytes of source code is provided on the issue discs.

Feature Summary

Modular Forth is to the Forth-83 standard, and allows full memory access to the machine; text or screen files for source; enhanced FRED screen editor with date-stamping and comment templating; an assembler with 8087 support, structures, and local labels with forward references; full MSDOS handle and memory management access; SHELL and DOS" commands call any program from Forth; software and 80x87 hardware floating point (source); windows and menus handlers (source); string handling (source); fields, records, sub-records, and variant records (source); three types of multi-tasking (two pre-emptive interrupt/timer/event driven, one cooperative round-robin); high and low level interrupt support; timer support allowing multiple timers to be slaved off a master; GEM graphics interface supporting VDI, AES, windows and menus (source); GEM resource construction set (source); turnkey generator for autostarting applications; tools module (source code and binary) which include automatic glossary generator that produces an alphabetically sorted glossary with stack comments and screen/line numbers which can be sent to screen, printer, or a text file; a spreadsheet in Forth; very fast compilation; an extensive manual with separate glossary; plus the module feature. The issue discs include about 800k of Forth source code.

XRef3

XRef3 is a Modular Forth application for producing cross reference information from Forth source files. A very powerful tool, XRef3 provides insights into the structure and execution of your code. XRef3 may also be used to generate post-project documentation in the form of word glossaries and source file contents lists.

Documentation tool for Cross Compilers
Identifies word dependencies
Identifies redundant code
Generates a glossary
See consequences of proposed changes
Generate a glossary with relevant source
Identifying all the words used in an application
Words they call
Other words calling them.
All word definitions and their stack comments from source
Produce an alphabetically sorted list in a text file.
Compatible with all Cross-Compilers, DOS and MPE Forths.

PC PowerForth v3.2

PC PowerForth Plus is a personal Forth system, featuring a complete implementation of Forth-83 (the current standard), with many extensions.

Forth is a language that combines the expressiveness of other high level languages with the speed of machine code. Furthermore, Forth is extensible and interactive - allowing you to develop programs in easy stages at the keyboard. As you compile new words into the system, these are tested and integrated, adding to the general vocabulary of the Forth language. User defined words are available to you in the same way as the predefined ones. Forth is a language of great richness and power, that enables a programmer to produce sophisticated programs quickly.

PC PowerForth Plus is a straightforward Forth system that is source code compatible with Modular Forth. PC PowerForth Plus is compact, fast, and efficient.

Editor

Source code can be edited in DOS text files using a standard editor, or in Forth screens using the supplied Forth screen editor, FRED.

Macro-assembler

PC PowerForth Plus includes a complete macro-assembler to enable you to create Forth words in machine code. Such words are useful for direct access to the operating system, and for words which need to be executed as fast as possible. The assembler supports the full instruction set of the processor, has extensions for high level control structures, has local label facilities with forward referencing, and is loaded automatically when required.

I/O structure

PC PowerForth Plus has been implemented in such a way that the operation of many input and output dependent words can be controlled by the user. This enables additional devices to be used through the Forth i/o structure as well as through the operating system. The DOS handle & hierarchical directory facilities, and memory allocation are fully supported. The user can also pass commands to the operating system, or create an operating system shell.

System calls

All disc input and output is performed through standard system calls. By default the screen is driven directly for speed, but system calls can be used if required.

Deferred word set

Vectored execution using deferred words - most i/o words supplied are deferred.

Binary overlays

Binary overlays are a mechanism for creating and loading pre-compiled utilities that do not use memory when not needed.

Decompiler

Pretty-Print Decompiler featuring indented layout of control structures, and grouping of Forth phrases.

Windows package

A tool to generate text window interfaces. Allows text windows to be created, opened closed, popped up and down. Output including the Forth interpreter can be directed to any window. Example code files are included.

Software floating point package

Includes number input, number printing, constants, variables, arrays, trig, memory operands, relational operators, stack operators, etc.

Single step source level debugger

Useful for learning how Forth works. Invaluable for debugging.

Source code

PC PowerForth Plus comes with files of Forth source code examples. Among the utilities provided in the example files are: “BreakForth” complete example Video Game String Manipulation Interpretive Control Logic Profiler Screen Handling File Compare Serial Drivers Remote VDU Simulator Block File Transfer Utility Control Structure Random Number Generator Multi-Dimensional Array Definition Trig Lookup Block File & Text File Conversion Tone Generators.

Manual

In addition to documenting the features listed above, the manual of over 200 pages includes details on the following:

A tutorial on how to program in PC PowerForth Plus. Useful information about the workings of PC PowerForth.
A description of how to go about creating auto-starting turnkey systems.
Information regarding the distribution of application programs and source code.
A list of books we at MPE have read and recommend to other Forth programmers.
Listing and explanation of PC Power Forth Plus error messages
Glossary - A Forth term for an alphabetically sorted list of words, with a description of the action of each one.
An index.

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MPE Forth Starter Kit CD Legacy Mission CD