I have OCR-ed the fig-Forth installation manual and the glossary and make them available in computer-readable form. Even the figures are there in tif format. ( Afterwards, it turned out that this documentation is available somewhere on the web, but it cannot be found be search machines, and I lost the link.) Valuable material of educational value is contained in the IBM-XT fig-Forth by J. E. Smith, Philadelphia fig86.zip or just here. Unfortunately nobody could assemble this version anymore. But you may want to salvage its documentation.
This glossary was the base for the glossary documentation for lina in html that is an example of the documentation that goes with any of the generic Forths. This modern documentation is also available in PostScript (still experimental) especially for the members of the dutch Forth user group for comment about 32 bit protected mode MSDOS Forth and about linux. The system to generate these Forth is also documented, this is more for experts than end users.. More over it is increasingly geared towards the more modern ISO forth, that succeeds this fig-Forth.
Based on the
original IBM-XT figforth in MASM-format
figforth8088.zip by Charlie Krajewski Middletown
I have made a
generic source system
that allows
me to generate a number of 16 or 32 bit, linux or msdos,
booting or hosted versions.
Based on your configuration information
the GNU based development system
will generate
a single
assembler source file
in fig tradition.
There is one
exception: one of the linux versions uses
c-code as a glue, and the general system
libraries are called.
The file generated
can be assembled and modified on any other system,
notably MSDOS/MSWINDOWS.
The adapted fig documentation and the
explanation of 4 levels of adaptability
are included in this archive.
If you want to modify and rebuilt it, you can use the excellent
nasm
assembler , I myself used version .98 .
The first level of adaptation allows to choose MASM/TASM source as
an alternative.
The assembler in GNU-Linux that comes as
part of the gcc-package
is difficult to use and has a syntax that deviates
substantial from Intels. It was never intended for heavy duty
stand alone assembly in the first place.
The generic source system
is also available
without long filenames .
It can be unpacked in
a system with filenames restricted to 8 plus 3 characters,
provided there is some zip program.
The
release note of version 2.148
gives an indication of
what files are present and what for.
The
test report
gives an indication what configurations have been tried,
tested is stating too much.
It now also contains information about the ISO
Forth but as the ISO Forth is based on the fig-Forth, the
notes about earlier versions apply.
If you encounter any problems with the latest version,
please email. Because in principle this is the last fig-Forth ever,
but that means it should at least work flawlessly.
In the meantime you may download one of the earlier
versions; all versions mentioned in the testreport can be downloaded
by just changing the version number in the URL, very old version are only
available upon request.
For these configurations a reasonable level of usability may be expected.
Other version may give more problems.
This is considered an alpha release.
For Linux there is a 32-bit fig-Forth that can still be down loaded as a binary distribution. That Forth was already called lina. (Like my Linux binary distribution of ISO ciforth that is based on it.) It is a very simple Linux Forth. It is a mere 13 Kbyte (fig) on the outside, but 64 Mbyte on the inside. (The ISO version is 23 Kbyte.)
forth32.com is a very simple MSDOS 32 bits Forth, where I have made a separate binary distribution for. It is a mere 14 Kbyte on the outside, but 8 Mbyte on the inside.
The screens loaded via the elective screen 8 are reasonably well tested and reliable. Those screens are 16/32 bit clean. The 16-bit 386-assembler is very compact and has some interesting techniques. The screens in general are to be considered only as educative material. Some contain some old code from my CP/M system (1980), untested as far as the new system is concerned. The quick reference card for the assembler and a good reference about the Intel 386 are indispensible for understanding the assembler. There exists a more advanced assembler. The assemblers plus testsets are also present in zipped form . You will find also the quick reference cards in PostScript ready made. They are almost indispensible because the mnemonics deviate from Intel's. Warning! The documentation is still sub-standard. There is a version for my i386 ISO-forth, called ciforth as well.
WARNING
This is a final version,
but where my focus is on ISO,
this version is no longer maintained,
and is kept available for those who for some reason
prefer the fig model.
Still I am grateful for any
comment and problem reports .
Some versions of this program and some utilities loaded access the
hard disk directly. Beware!