9 Oct
1998
9 Oct
'98
2:12 p.m.
Here's another resource for FORTH:
http://www.forth.org/
If you look through the FTP archives, you'll find the original
FIG-FORTH for the PDP-11. The problem is, to make fundamental changes
to the basic system, you need to have RT-11 (or RSX,..., something to
run MACRO and create a bootable floppy). Once you have that floppy,
however, you have a standalone OS/Compiler/Assembler/Editor/runtime
that can accomplish quite a bit.
What you really want is a system with a "meta-compiler" that runs
under FORTH to regenerate the basic system, if you need to do so.
I don't recall there being any systems with reasonable licensing
(i.e., non-commercial) that do this for the PDP-11.
As I said earlier, you should go the way of FORTH only if you are
willing to be consumed by it--because you will be. You become the
all-powerful creator and maintainer, and it becomes a religion.
It does work very well on small systems (like an 11/03 with dual
floppies) because that's where it originated.
Zane H. Healy wrote:
- FORTH, which
is available in several different versions for a
minimal -11. From personal experience, however, I wouldn't want
to wish this on anybody but the most dedicated hackers. Perhaps
that describes well someone who is trying to use a small -11 now?
Interesting. I'd always only considered FORTH to be a language. So can it
provide a "OS" of sorts in the same sense that BASIC did on systems such as
the VIC-20 and C-64?
I took a quick look at the FORTH resources you listed, but they don't
really seem to have anything to do with PDP-11's. Is there a better place
to get information on it for the PDP-11? i.e. a DECUS directory in the
Sunsite archive?