cf2009may15 V1.0 2009 May 15
cfdos.com V4.0 2005 May 27
Disclaimer
cfdos.com , floppy.com and the associated *.BLK
files are supplied as tools to download and view colorForth source files.
It is as safe as any DOS program, and does not modify any hard disk boot
sectors.
It does however, create bootable floppy disks
that when run can access your hard disk’s boot sectors. This will not happen by
accident, but only if you load the “Hard disk” access block (for example in
CFDOS4.BLK block 150) and then write to sector 0.
Obviously, you use it at your own risk!
New easy
to use floppy disk writer!
Full assembler
source files, MASM assembler, colorForth source and DOS batch file to create the colorForth image, plus floppy.com
to download it to a floppy disc :
Zip file cf2009May15.zip and self-extracting zip file cf2009May15.exe
Quick
start guide
=================
Run cf2009may15.exe and
follow the instructions
Put a blank, formatted
floppy disk in the floppy drive and double click on "go.bat"
This will create a bootable
colorForth floppy disk
Reboot your computer with
the floppy in the drive
You
may need to adjust your BIOS settings to get the floppy to boot -
please see http://www.inventio.co.uk/getbios.htm
from http://www.inventio.co.uk/cfdos.htm
for how to do this...
Note : this version requires
a built-in floppy drive - it will not work from an external USB drive
The PC must have an AGP
graphics card and at least 32M bytes of RAM
Please use cfdos if you want to read colorForth source under
DOS/Windows :
Version 4.0 2005 Jan 23 : See new features…
Download cfdos4v0.exe self-extracting
zip file.
Download cfdos4v0.zip non-self-extracting
zip file. Unzip to \cfdos and run cfdos.com .
Download cfdos4.blk my latest ( not zipped ) reference file. Copy to \cfdos and run cfdos.com .
Download CFDOS.BLK ( not zipped )
reference file. Copy to \cfdos and run cfdos.com .
Press F1 repeatedly to step
through the help screens, then any other key.
cfdos.com is a DOS program to
display colorForth
pre-parsed source blocks. This program will work on any computer that runs or
emulates DOS, and allows you to view colorForth source, in both normal and
"colour blind" mode. It features a file listing utility ( F6 ) which
displays all files of type *.BLK in the same directory, and can copy them to a
formatted floppy disk.
cfdos.com would be nothing without the various
versions of colorForth and application code that I have trawled from the Internet,
so thanks to :
Bernd Beuster ( sound driver ), Terry Loveall (
floppy driver ), Kris
Johnson ( assorted apps ), Tim Neitz ( block
client/server ), Mark
Slicker ( Mandlebrot set, comet Ethernet driver, DNS and DHCP ), Bob
Shafer (Game of Life) and of course to Chuck Moore
for not only discovering colorForth, but for releasing it into the public
domain. Thanks!
If
you have any colorForth source, can fill in details of the files that I already
have, do not want your source distributed with cfdos, I have spelled your name
wrong, or forgotten to mention you, please let me know.
I should also mention thanks to Roman Pavluk and Richard Collins for
their Windows versions, Sean Pringle
for Enth and Jeff Fox for
Aha and his many lucid explanations on comp.lang.forth.
My
own contribution is cfdos.com, and the colorForth source file CFDOS4.BLK (
which is the default file when you first run cfdos.com ). CFDOS4.BLK is a
compilation of code from any and all of the above authors. I have added “wood”,
which is Mark Slicker’s Mandlebrot set display mangled to look like pine
block-board. I have also added “nload” and “+load” in block 20. They load the
next or nth next block, and allow sections of code to be moved without editing.
I have changed many literal loads to this form, so that the code can be copied
and loaded from different blocks. To make life easier, I have added “ld” which
loads a block and saves the block number, “vv” which views the last block
loaded by “ld”, “ll” which loads the currently edited block and “ss” which
saves the current edit block to the floppy disk, and “uu” which restores the
current block from the floppy disk. All of these double letter words actually read
or write one floppy disk sector, or 18 blocks.
I
have also changed the number of sectors loaded at startup and saved by “save”
to 14, giving 252 blocks in total. The files are 256 blocks each – don’t use
the last four blocks as they will not get loaded or saved.
The
colorForth binary in blocks 0 to 17 is Terry Loveall’s code with the new
improved floppy strobe. I find that this works on all of my 3 PCs and on my
laptop, and also on most laptops I have tried it on.
To
run colorForth your PC must have a floppy drive, 386 or above processor,
32Mbytes of RAM, PCI or AGP video and a monitor capable of displaying
1024x768x16bit colours. The binary image cf800.blk is also available – it runs
in 800x600x16bit video mode.
Hints
:
You
should certainly be able to see the source code with cfdos.com, but if at all
possible you should find some floppy disks and a computer and run
colorForth. Press “D” to download to the floppy. Try CFDOS4.BLK first, as it
works on most of the computers that I have tried it on. You may need to find a
200MHz - 500MHz Pentium ( with a floppy disk and AGP graphics ), as these seem
to be particularly compatible, as are 1GHz to 1.5GHz laptops.
You
may need to change the boot order in the BIOS to
allow the floppy disk to boot first. Press F2, Del or whatever the BIOS tells
you to to “Enter Setup” as the computer boots. Find the boot order section,
change it to make the Floppy disk boot first, save and exit. Put the colorForth
floppy in the disk drive, and reboot the computer.
If
you see the colorForth main screen, try typing “save” ( actually the ;a/d keys ). This should save 252 blocks to the floppy, and then
return to colorForth ( after about 58 seconds ). If this hangs, you have
incompatible floppy disk hardware. Try one of the other files. You can also try
adding an ISA card with floppy driver on board – they generally work.
You
can mix and match the binary in blocks 0 to 17 plus souce in blocks 18 to 35,
with the source in another file by pressing ctrlD or ctrlU. When you have
created your perfect disk ( with lots of new code ! ) you can use cfdos.com to
upload it to a file. Give it an 8.3 DOS name and send it to me so that I can
include in my next distribution. ;)
I do not recommend that you run color.com
from the colorForth website under Windows 98 ( or earlier ), as this can
upset the operating system – the file CFCHUCK.BLK supplied with cfdos is a binary
version of this which you can download to a floppy. This also applies to other,
simliar DOS executables of the colorForth image - but cfdos.com is perfectly safe! Note that Windows XP, 2000 and
NT are not affected by this.
If you do click on color.com using Windows 98 and answer YES to the "Run in MSDOS mode" option, Windows will add a line to the c:\autoexec.bat file something like :
"CALL
........\COLOR-BG-COM" .
This will
execute the colorForth binary every time Windows is started.
To
return to normal Windows 98 operation :
Press
F8 as Windows is starting, and select "4. step-by-step confirmation".
Press
"Y" repeatedly (about 15 to 20 times) until the "CALL
........\COLOR-BG-COM" line when you press "N".
Press
"Y" again a few more times... Windows will then tidy up its mess, and
all will return to normal.
ColorForth
and the various applications are all Work In Progress. All code runs directly
on the hardware, and so may have to be modified for your system. This goes
against the sales pitch of every other language and program – “plug &
play”, “point & click”.
Almost
everything about colorForth is different
to any other programming language you may have seen. It does not use ASCII, or
files or even the letters printed on your keyboard.
colorForth is really neat, and is worth any effort you may make
to understand and use it. I hope cfdos.com makes it that little bit easier for
you…
colorForth
links can be found at http://cflinks.strangegizmo.com/
Please give feedback and bug reports to Howerd Oakford : howerd@inventio.co.uk