Forth Day
November 2007 Meeting Notes

Compiled by Dave Jaffe

Contributions from Kevin Appert and others

09:30

Coffee and networking

09:55

Chairman's Welcome - George Perry

10:00

F# Tutorial - CH Ting
"I will give a short presentation on the F# implementation and how to use it in Windows applications. I will demonstrate a number of applications to show how F# makes use of Forth in a Windows environment."

Slides

F# Version 2.40

F# Version 2.41 with Tutorial - 366 Kb zip file

10:00

Audible Computing - Masa Kasahara
Masa will discuss his rationale for his Audible Computing project and how Forth might play an entirely different role in computer language history.

Slides - 1.9 Mb pdf file

Curtis keyer Chip

11:00

Forth Microcontroller for Education and Robotics - Glen Reuschling
Glen will report on his recent progress in building an FPGA-based Forth microcontroller with an integral USB host controller. He'll also present plans for using the controller in science education and robotics.

48 Mhz, 128 instructions, 3 to 8 clocks per instruction

11:10

Portable Embedded Forth Application Development - Leon Wagner
"I will demonstrate the development, debugging, and testing of a very simple embedded application using the SwiftX development environment. I will then show how this application can be moved across a variety of target hardware platforms with minimum modification."

Leon will be bringing copies of the newly published Forth Programmer's Handbook - 3rd Editionfor sale for $35 (tax included - cash or check only, no credit card purchases). Email Kevin Appert (forther -at- comcast.net) to reserve your copy.

The new and improved Forth Programmer's Handbook (3rd Edition) was just released by Forth, Inc. The book has been extensively revised and updated to reflect current programming styles and usage. Nearly 50 pages have been added, including enhanced descriptions of many features and new topics such as Forth cross compilers. This edition covers nearly 400 ANS Forth words and common extensions.

Forth Programmer's Handbook was written by two founders of Forth, Inc. for readers with a programming background but not necessarily prior experience with Forth. Offering comprehensive coverage of all major aspects of the Forth language - from basic principles to advanced concepts - the Handbook has become the de facto Forth reference manual for Forth programmers everywhere.

SwiftX - SwiftX Application Developmenton the top of the toolbar on the right

This paper demonstrates the development of a simple embedded application (a Morse code distress signal) using SwiftX. The application is ported to three completely different CPU types by changing only the hardware API code.

This download includes the project source files as well. It's a zip with the PDF plus source all in one.

12:00

BBQ Lunch- Catered by CH Ting

13:00

IntellaSys Session:- John Rible (Moderator)

• SEAforth24's Interface to the PC - Jurgen Krehnke (VP Marketing)

  jurgen -at- intellasys.net

• Running Identical Code on Multiple Platforms without Conditional Compilation - Bill Muench
• One Way to Execute Very Long Programs on a SEAforth Chip- Charley Shattuck
• Port Streams: Telling Multiple Processors What To Do - Randy Leberknight
• Music Synthesis with SEAforth24- Michael Montvelishsky

  Slides - 212 Kb pdf file

• Jeff's Ramble - Jeff Fox
• IntellaSys Utility which Translates Both Ways between ColorForth and (ASCII) Machine Forth - John Rible- not presented due to lack of time

15:00

Fireside Chat - Chuck Moore

Chip uses .18 micron process

1.8 V

3 by 3 chip board produced

48 core chip coming

chip on a thumb drive will be about $30

Analog output is 0 to 1.5 volts

16:30

Adjourn

17:00

Dinner at Palace BBQ Buffet in Sunnyvale

Other items:

Sam Falvo's Forth Day blog