begin work on the proper manual
This commit is contained in:
crc
parent
018b9558c3
commit
9b05c5dd5a
1 changed files with 137 additions and 0 deletions
|
|
@ -1,2 +1,139 @@
|
|||
# Konilo Manual
|
||||
|
||||
```
|
||||
There is significant interest in a more traditional manual, so
|
||||
this will (eventually) contain it. Expect it to be raw and very
|
||||
unfinished at this point.
|
||||
|
||||
Document Format:
|
||||
|
||||
I'm going to be using a Markdown-like format for this, but it's
|
||||
not strictly Markdown. Tooling to create various formats from it
|
||||
will be implemented as part of the process.
|
||||
|
||||
Questions / Topics
|
||||
|
||||
- what is konilo
|
||||
- relationship between konilo & retroforth
|
||||
- ilo computer
|
||||
- introduction to forth
|
||||
- stacks
|
||||
- words
|
||||
- dictionary
|
||||
- sigils
|
||||
- combinators
|
||||
- konilo applications
|
||||
- block editors
|
||||
- basic editor
|
||||
- tuhi
|
||||
- rem
|
||||
- catalogue
|
||||
- manual
|
||||
- kohure
|
||||
- wisp
|
||||
- wiki
|
||||
- ripanga
|
||||
- konilo frameworks
|
||||
- termina
|
||||
- kaute
|
||||
- graphica
|
||||
- techniques
|
||||
- assembly programming
|
||||
- host-specific things
|
||||
- x86-native
|
||||
- teensy
|
||||
- basic interactions
|
||||
- installation
|
||||
- starting konilo
|
||||
- exiting konilo
|
||||
- listener
|
||||
```
|
||||
|
||||
# Introducing Konilo
|
||||
|
||||
Konilo is a small, pragmatic personal computing system written
|
||||
in Forth and running on a tiny virtual computer.
|
||||
|
||||
It's not something intended to be widely used. It's a deeply
|
||||
personal system; I publish it in hopes that others may find it
|
||||
useful, but making a system that appeals to a broad audience is
|
||||
not my goal.
|
||||
|
||||
Konilo is a small system. A barebones system is just over 2.5k
|
||||
memory cells, and provides a functional Forth environment
|
||||
including the compiler, block editor, and interactive listener.
|
||||
A fully extended system, with an expanded vocabulary of words
|
||||
and several additional applications is under 10k.
|
||||
|
||||
Forth is at the heart of Konilo. It's not a conventional choice,
|
||||
but over the last few decades I've become very comfortable with
|
||||
it, and, in setting out to create a personal computing system,
|
||||
have found it to work well. My Forth is not a traditional model.
|
||||
I use a very minimal dictionary, and make extensive use of both
|
||||
sigils and quotations, leading to an implementation that feels
|
||||
quite different from classical Forth systems.
|
||||
|
||||
The entire system runs on a virtual computer. This is a path I
|
||||
started for portability reasons, and one that I've found quite
|
||||
practical. Through the use of a virtual computer, Konilo has
|
||||
been demonstrated to run on hosts from the late 1980's through
|
||||
modern machines.
|
||||
|
||||
# Konilo and RetroForth
|
||||
|
||||
Konilo is similar in many respects to RetroForth. Both derive
|
||||
from classical Forth, adding in sigils, quotations, and use of
|
||||
combinators for logic and flow control. Both have similar core
|
||||
vocabularies, and (in general) it's easy to write programs which
|
||||
work on both.
|
||||
|
||||
But Konilo has some important changes. From a language viewpoint
|
||||
the major three are a much more limited dictionary structure, a
|
||||
removal of word classes, and a completely different model for
|
||||
strings.
|
||||
|
||||
RetroForth tracks a lot of data for each defined word. Konilo
|
||||
does not. A comparison of the structure:
|
||||
|
||||
RetroForth Konilo
|
||||
---------- ----------
|
||||
d:link d:link
|
||||
d:xt d:address
|
||||
d:class d:hash
|
||||
d:source
|
||||
d:hash
|
||||
d:name
|
||||
|
||||
Note that Konilo lacks the d:class, d:source, and d:name fields.
|
||||
|
||||
Word classes are removed. In RetroForth, the contents of the
|
||||
d:xt field are placed on the stack, and a word class handler
|
||||
function is called during interpret or compilation. In Konilo,
|
||||
the system handles two cases (normal vs immediate), with all
|
||||
other functionality handled by the sigils.
|
||||
|
||||
The other big change is strings. In RetroForth strings are null
|
||||
terminated sequences of characters. This is perhaps less than
|
||||
ideal for a variety of reasons, but keeps compatibility with
|
||||
previous generations of the system. Konilo, being a completely
|
||||
fresh start, changes this, so that strings are character arrays.
|
||||
|
||||
# ilo computer
|
||||
|
||||
ilo is the virtual computer Konilo runs on. It implements a
|
||||
misc-style stack processor, 64k cells of memory, and several
|
||||
i/o devices. Implementations are small (between 100-500 lines
|
||||
of source is typical) and easy to write (most implementations
|
||||
have taken only a few hours to write & debug).
|
||||
|
||||
# frameworks: termina
|
||||
|
||||
Termina is the basic scaffold for many of the programs in
|
||||
Konilo.
|
||||
|
||||
# frameworks: graphica
|
||||
|
||||
# frameworks: kaute
|
||||
|
||||
Kaute is a new scaffold for creating simple spreadsheet-like
|
||||
programs.
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
Loading…
Reference in a new issue