Forth On Line Project


At the Silicon Valley Forth Interest Group meeting February 26, 2000 a group led by John Peters got together for the purpose of developing a web page that will act as a command line Forth. This would permit anyone to try out Forth online and to collaborate on a project.

Goal: Provide an experimental Forth presence on the Internet

Start out with a simple small system
Make the system source available
At a minimum it will execute common Forth commands like 2 2 + .
Allow the users to make improvements
Allow full access to the Forth system
Secure the system only as much as needed
Keep a backup on a CD rom disk
Use a watch dog to reload from the CD if there is a need
Or a better way. . .

Update: 04/15/2000

It turns out that there is such a system already on line in the internet:

From: Jeff Kelm

If you want to give people access to a Forth interpreter to experiment with, there are already a couple "Forth written in Java" sites. For example:

eForth for Java
WebForth, a Java applet demonstrating ANS Forth
A Forth Interpreter in Java

Now that there is a small system that works, is there any way improve and extend it?

Let us put an application on line. Does any one have a loan calculator or a calendar generator? Maybe a computer chip design program or emulator?

Contact:Please foreward pointers to:

John A. Peters
415/585-1245 Cell phone

Update: 02/02/2001 - Another response:

I recently joined SVFIG out of frustration with the sad stat of affairs with the national organization. I've yet to attend a meeting, but that has at least a chance of changing someday not to far in the future.

In any case, I can on your request for suggestions for an application which could be used to introduce non-FORTH folks to the language and a good use for it. What about an emulation of an HP calculator. The RPN versions have gone out of favor and may even be non-existent in today's line, I really don't know. I do know there have been a lot of HP calculator fans over the years and having to put up with the lame excuse for a scientific calculator offered on a Windows machine is enough to make anyone want to log onto something that doesn't need ( )'s.

Sincerely,
Bruce Ball


Comment: Here is my response to Bruce Ball


Thanks for the reply.

I think it is a good idea. Now the challenge is to publish the idea and challenge Forth Users to make one if they have not already done so.

I just went to where I publish my request. It part of the Forth Online Project. Did you try out some of the links to the Forths that work via a browser?

Can you clarify the specifications a bit more. Is there a sample calculator interface that we can use as a model? If there is one in the windows domain where is it? Is it the one in START PROGRAMS ACCESSORIES CALCULATOR?

My idea for an improvement is to have the numbers scroll up the screen like an adding machine. The 2nd improvement would to be able to cursor up to any number on the adding machine tape and make a correction like you can with an excel sheet.

Actually that is how I do my adding some times. I have a excel sheet named ADDING.XLS that has some preformatted areas that automatically add the numbers as they are entered.

What do you think?

John Peters


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