[MachineForth] [ColorForth] Forth CPU question!

[Jeff Fox <fox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> I'm not sure.  Jeff probably could explain.  I thought MachineForth was a
> lot earlier and different than ColorForth.

Machine Forth is the assembler on second generation stack machines
of the MISC family.  ColorForth is a version of Forth using a form
of tokenized source code where spaces can contain prefix information
for the compiler.  ColorForth has been implemented on Pentium machines
by Chuck, Terry, and Sean at this point.  I have designed aha which
can include a ColorForth interface but I haven't writen any code.

Machine Forth represents the Forth Chuck was doing from
about fifteen to five years ago.  He didn't do much
Forth at the time.  Those who have worked with second
generation Forth chips have been doing machine Forth
for as much as ten years.

ColorForth is about five years old and so far has not
been implmented on any Forth chips.  Both MachineForth
and ColorForth are like traditional Forth in some
ways and different than traditional Forth in others.
ColorForth is more like traditional Forth in some
ways than MachineForth, and more different in other
ways.

MachineForth can look just like traditional Forth if you want,
but the carry bit on the x21 series makes it different than traditional
Forth, and the flow control words like IF and WHILE don't consume
the flag, they are like DUP IF etc.  So in those ways Machine Forth is
different, but can support traditional Forth compiler designs etc.

ColorForth is a new approach to compiler design.  Chuck's ColorForth
used a MachineForth virtual machine, but there is an important
difference conceptually.

Once we get a faq I think there won't be much need to
crosspost things to the multiple lists, with the
exception of an occasional notice perhaps.

I expect other people will have lots of discussions
without expect me to have answers to all kinds of
different questions.

Jeff Fox
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