[Coco] Coco Digest, Vol 144, Issue 29

[spereira1952 at comcast.net]

Hi Kip, 

Thanks very much. Never fear, I will keep posting my progress (or lack thereof) as it occurs. This time around, I am glad to be posting some positive progress (with the excellent help from Brett), rather than my usual complaining about what problems I am having. 

Right now, all I have is the kernal code from the Color Forth manual. Hopefully, I can learn enough about the innards of the code to be able to change it a bit to become "my Forth." It promises to be an adventure, for sure. 

smp 
- - - 
Stephen Pereira 
Bedford, NH 03110 
KB1SXE 


----- Original Message -----

Date: Tue, 9 Dec 2014 01:02:01 -0500 
From: "Kip Koon" <computerdoc at sc.rr.com> 
To: "'CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts'" <coco at maltedmedia.com> 
Subject: Re: [Coco] [CoCo] Success with Color Forth! 
Message-ID: <000c01d01375$a65787c0$f3069740$@sc.rr.com> 
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" 

Hi Stephen! 
You have embarked on a very interesting journey indeed! Please add me to you insider's email list of your ongoing Color Forth Saga. I'm all for updating Coco software to take advantage the new hardware and software that our very intelligent Coco community always seems to come up with. I'd like to take a look at your version of Color Forth you came up with. I know very little about Forth myself although I have been fascinated by how different it is. Brett took me on a tour of his Forth OS he made which I can't remember the name of presently as well as the Forth he wrote. He is brilliant with Forth. We are fortunate to have him on our list. Keep up the great work! Take care my friend. 

Kip Koon 
computerdoc at sc.rr.com 
http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Kip_Koon 


-----Original Message----- 
From: Coco [mailto:coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com] On Behalf Of Stephen Pereira 
Sent: Monday, December 08, 2014 7:19 PM 
To: coco at maltedmedia.com 
Subject: [Coco] [CoCo] Success with Color Forth! 

Hello all, 

I have been typing in the source code for the Color Forth ROM cartridge, in hope of changing the memory location and getting the code to run in the lower 32K of memory in my CoCo 3. Both the Color Forth ROM file and the Color Forth manual are available online. The Color Forth manual contains a source listing for the kernal system, plus 24 additional screens of code to load in after the kernal is up and running. 

This past weekend, I completed my typing, and I spent Saturday getting the code to assemble on my CoCo 3 with HDBDOS, Drivewire, and Disk EDTASM (modified to work with HDBDOS and Drivewire by Robert Gault). 

I found a bunch of typing errors, but I also found that the listing had a number of mnemonics that EDTASM did not understand. I had to change CPX to CMPX, STAB to STB, both in a few instances, and in one instance I had to change CMPB 0,Y+ to be CMPB ,Y+ because EDTASM was complaining of an illegal operand. 

I finally achieved a file that assembles with only 4 warnings that a long branch is not needed. 

I also tried to relocate the code. I changed PRGBGN from $C000 to $5800, and I changed BRAM from $0620 to $2000. I could LOADM this code, and it came up when I EXECed it. Once it was up, I could type VLIST and see all the words scroll by. I could type both WARM and COLD and see the code restart. When I actually attempted to do something like 1 2 3 + + . then the system blew up. 

A couple of folks on this list have been communicating with me about this project. I contacted one of them with my progress and asked for his advice. He was kind enough to take a look and found 3 typos that I still had. With those fixed, I now have the Color Forth kernal up and running! Thanks a million Brett! 

I will gladly send a copy of the Color Forth source code to anyone who is interested. Just send me a message off list, and I’ll respond with the file attached. 

Next, I’ll be drawing up a memory map and learning more about the internal working of Color Forth so I can ignore the cassette I/O and hopefully be able to load and save new screens of code with LOADM and SAVEM. 

Thanks for listening! 

smp 
-- 
Stephen M. Pereira 
Bedford, NH 03110 
KB1SXE