[ColorForth] Random comments

["Tom Novelli" <tcn@xxxxxxxxx>]

Well, I've been using colorForth and reading this list for a week or so.. I 
have a few random comments to add:

Graphics compatibility is the main problem. Standard VGA (8x8 font, 320x200 or 
360x240), even text mode, would be nice. I'd rather run this on my old 386 
where I could use a hard disk partition without too much worry, and use the 
newer computer for something else (like reading web pages about colorForth :)

I wrote a unix program that closely resembles colorForth.. I'm trying to write 
a better assembler, and it makes sense to use a colorForth-like editor.. 
assembly code can be just another "color", freely intermixed with forth. I'll 
try using the 27-key keyboard - 1 key for each instruction and register.. if 
this works we can easily add it to colorForth.
(Why unix? Because I can assemble & test my code quickly. Other than that it 
sucks.)

About the keyboard.. it's great for menus and numbers.. a little awkward for 
English text - I'd rather use all the alphanumeric keys for that.  Also, I 
can't hit Alt with my thumb on my good old Northgate keyboard.. even on the 
win95 keyboard I find it awkward. In my unix program I had to use the ' key 
(quote) instead of Alt, and it works better! I only use my thumb on the 
spacebar. To each his own, eh?

I saw something about a one-handed keyboard with 15 keys.. I say, add another 
shift key, make it 16.. that's a 4x4 matrix. It would be perfect for a 
handheld computer. As a peripheral, I'd make it narrow, hold it in my left 
hand like a guitar or fiddle.. I might even put strings and frets on it 
instead of keys, or little round buttons like a concertina. Better tactile 
feedback.

Side note: there's a [half-dead] OS project called TUNES, which I joined back 
when I got into forth, asm, and OS development.. it occurs to me that 
ColorForth accomplishes most of the TUNES goals. And fast compilation does 
away with the need for the fancy "object migration" and memory management 
everyone thought TUNES would require. Oh yeah, my point? ColorForth is 
approaching perfection :)

I've been thinking about a bare-bones filesystem for a bunch of little 
"OSes" sharing a disk... Suppose it just lets you allocate X amount of 
contiguous space, and give it a name.. these files would be like named, 
moveable partitions. Anyone who wants stuff like subdirectories and 
noncontiguous allocation can do that within a large contiguous file.

Tom Novelli

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