Re: [gforth] New member, new Forther

[Owen Brand]

Hmmm.....  I was hoping to avoid having to load external libraries...

 

My first plan is a graphical demo which (I hope) will turn into something more.  I have written games in Extended BASIC for the TI-99/4a and I'd like to port one or two to gforth if I can.  My programming method is pretty lazy, really... I like to start by designing the graphics, once I have a concept... It gives me the "feel" for the application.  Then I start in developing user input commands keyboard inputs based around loose subroutines which aren't fleshed out yet.  Once I get some skeleton routines in place and an intuitive UI, I start getting down to the nitty gritty.  This is really why Forth is so suited to my programming style... moreso than assembly, which really requires a far more structured programming philosophy.  With Forth, you can do pretty much whatever the hell you want to do and develop your programs in the manner that suits you.  Wycove Forth 3.0 for the TI is a marvellous system, but very limited in its base of developers... without support and people to play your games, there's no reason to program in that language.  Wycove is still not freeware... after 25 years, the developer still charges $50 or something for the language disks and manual, and there are virtually NO users.  That's why I'm here.  =)

 

I'll search for some tools online and report back to you guys when I have some info to share.  Thanks for your help!!!

 

 

On Sat, Feb 26, 2011 at 1:02 AM, Dennis Ruffer <address@hidden> wrote:

Redefining font characters is another issue that is extremely machine specific.  You might look at OpenGL.  I seem to remember that there's a library for gforth floating around somewhere.  It might have some font manipulation tools within it, and it's sort of where you should be heading for games anyway.

 

DaR

 

From: Owen Brand [mailto:address@hidden]
Sent: Friday, February 25, 2011 5:34 PM
To: Dennis Ruffer; address@hidden

Subject: Re: [gforth] New member, new Forther

 

Yea, the big blue paper version is the one I've got.  :). I'll be making a new gforth video tonight discussing stack manipulation... DUP, ROT, DROP, etc...

Also want to learn to redefine characters and place them on the screen---- still don't know how to so that in gforth.  Any pointers?  Maybe someone could direct me to a chapter in the manual.  Is character redefinition based on hex code?  For example:

Char(129) "56AD12FFF201BCD4"

That's assuming we're talking about 8x8 pixel chardefs.  Thanks for you help!!!

 

***

 

One of you fellas said something about "running on bare metal".  How is that possible without Windows?  Is it possible to put gforth onto an EPROM or the like and run it from a custom built system?  That.... would be COOL.  =)