Q&A - Recent questions

HELP appears mixed up on a RasPi-Zero using VfxArmLin

Fri, 07 Aug 2026 20:42:29 +0000

RasPi-Zero W, Linux 12, bookworm

Tried "help locate" in command window running VFX Forth 5120 build 0351 2022-10-17 for Linux Arm. Gets me:

Get -13 ERR,

%basepath%/Manual/PDFs/VfxLin.vix (NO mention of Arm)

sudo find / -iname *.vix gets me: ( in another command window )

/home/cnc/VfxForthArmLin/Doc/VfxArmLin.vcx (NO mention of Manual/PDFs/ ... )

/home/cnc/VfxForthArmLin/Examples/Lin32/Minos/Minos.vix

Please direct me if this is documented somewhere.

Are there libraries I should have loaded before loading code?

How would I view the contents of %basepath%?

Code that is working: time&date .Time&Date => 07 Aug 2026 16:40:22

What is the status of the ARM64 VFX project?

Tue, 14 Jul 2026 10:47:39 +0000

Gerald - Apple's announcement that Rosetta 2 will soon be retired has increased theimportance of a native ARM64 version of VFX for those of us developing on current Macs.

Could you let me know the current status of the VFX Arm64 project? If a public release is still some way off, would it be possible to obtain a pre-release version for testing and to begin adapting my existing code base? I would be happy to purchase a license for such a version.

If additional assistance would be useful, I would be glad to help with testing or implementation, particularly in areas related to the macOS frameworks and Cocoa media interfaces, where I have relevant experience.

I look forward to hearing news about this project.

Thank you,

Bruno

Cannot define a custom DEBUGGER

Tue, 23 Jun 2026 21:31:08 +0000

No matter what I do, I can't define a stable custom exception handler. I've put up with the GUI-based one which I have always disliked because it is fiddly, unstable, and can't be copy-pasted easily, but I've had enough and just want a standard terminal output.

As a simple test I want to just capture the error code. At first I wanted to output to console but I've whittled it down to just that.

`0 @` works, but calling any external function leads to the handler being called in an infinite loop.

I've tried to get this to work on my 32-bit copy and the latest 64-bit release.

protectedexterns
variable err
: my-debugger  ( errcode *context -- filter )
    drop                      \ ignore context pointer for now
    \ task0-io op-handle !
    err !
    \ ." Exception code: " 
    \ ." (terminal handler — no GUI popup)" cr
    false
;
' my-debugger to-callback DEBUGGER

: test 255 0 ['] getcurrentdirectory catch  err ? ;

Hope you are all practicing your Welsh?

Fri, 12 Jun 2026 11:29:41 +0000

Look forward to seeing you all at EuroForth 2026 in Cardiff.

Z" Welcome to Wales for the Software Conference" Z" Welsh" TRANSLATE CR Z$.
Croeso i Gymru ar gyfer y Gynhadledd Feddalwedd ok

(Yes, that really works!)

Support for RISC-V

Thu, 21 May 2026 14:45:25 +0000

Just curious but is there any planned support for RISC-V in the future?

Improvement needed to the vfx documentation for INCLUDED

Fri, 15 May 2026 11:19:37 +0000

INCLUDED cannot be used to insert code into a word that is being compiled.

INCLUDE-FILE can.

Took us (i.e. Nick and his AI) quite a while to figure that out.

How do we make a Linux .so library file using VFX64?

Fri, 20 Mar 2026 11:40:56 +0000

We vaguely recall being able to make .dll files in the bad old days - but we can't figure out how to make .so's.

How can I use my own icon for my program created with VFX Forth?

Sat, 21 Feb 2026 16:42:39 +0000

Windows security

Mon, 05 Jan 2026 01:18:01 +0000

Enough people have reported my games not working (black screens), with some trying again later only for them to work fine. Presumably because the exe has been cleared by Windows.

Has MPE done any investigation into the root cause of this? To my recollection SwiftForth doesn't have this problem. I'm looking into creating a compatibility layer, but obviously it's going to be substantial work with all the low-level extensions I've added in my system.

If there is a surefire workaround that doesn't involve codesigning EVERY executable I want to distribute I'd love to know it.

Games in question: https://inkajoo.itch.io/

How to flush a ." string" immediately?

Sun, 28 Dec 2025 00:13:18 +0000

Unlike other Forths (Swift Forth, gForth, Win32Forth), CR seems to not cause a flush to string. So that when I...

." Please wait while slow code processes." CR

...that string appears on screen AFTER the slow code has finished. Which isn't helpful.

How do I get VFX Forth to flush a string buffer to screen immediately?

Initialising local values - a plea

Tue, 11 Nov 2025 12:55:08 +0000

In his paper to Euroforth 2025, Nick Nelson made a plea (I think his second plea on the same subject), that local values should be initialised on entry.
It is so easy to forget to do this manually.
Now it has caught us out again.

If you use

gtk_tree_model_get

to retrieve the value of a column, and you use a local to put it in, it works fine if the column is a data type string.
But if the column is a data type int or bool, and you tell it to put it in ADDR <local> , it only half fills it because ints and bools are only 32 bit.
If you have forgotten to manually initialise your local, then the result is garbage.
A very hard bug to track down.

Statically linked turnkey application

Wed, 15 Oct 2025 14:59:00 +0000

I'm playing with VFX Forth on Linux and I was wondering if it supports generating statically linked executables, or if dynamic linking is required?

file p0046
    p0046: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, interpreter /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2, no section header

ldd p0046
        linux-vdso.so.1 (0x00007ffe0cf14000)
        libdl.so.2 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libdl.so.2 (0x00007fd313f6b000)
        libc.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 (0x00007fd313d89000)
        /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00007fd313f88000)

Adding interrupt handler

Tue, 09 Sep 2025 14:39:00 +0000

If I relocate the vector table of a cortex-m4 to r/w memory, can I add EXC: definition to the target located in IntCortex.fth?

Edit:

I’ve realised I can use vectored execution and a dummy isr.

Are you all coming to the Euroforth conference?

Mon, 01 Sep 2025 08:32:26 +0000

Hamburg, 12.-14. September 2025

https://euro.theforth.net/

Should be very informative, as always.

There’s a bug in the macOS cross compiler

Sun, 03 Aug 2025 04:08:12 +0000

After some investigation, when cross compiling vpf32sx.fth the stack depth appears to be limited to 6 values, as any more values are lost. This causes the population of farray to fail.

Is there a formal bug submission process?

Thanks,

Theo

This question is no longer relevant, but there's no delete function.

Mon, 28 Jul 2025 20:07:43 +0000

Problem with binding rebuilt VFX (MacOS) Kernel

Thu, 24 Jul 2025 14:08:54 +0000

When I rebuild the VFX kernel using x64.mo and mosx64.sh, I can generate VFXFORTH64.img. But the script then tries to run it directly, and macOS throws a “exec format error” (likely expecting a Mach-O binary):

Is there a work-around for this, or am I following the wrong shell script? (I'm using the script mosx64.sh in /Kernel as the guide.)

thanks

- Bruno

Beginner Question: Drawing Simple Graphics with VFX Forth?

Mon, 07 Jul 2025 21:38:24 +0000

Hello everyone,

I’m a complete beginner to VFX Forth, with no prior experience with the language or its ecosystem. I recently discovered it and would really like to get familiar with the language by working on small visual sketches, things like drawing simple geometries (circles, lines, grids) on an external window or canvas.

Eventually, I’d also love to experiment with some basic interaction, such as responding to mouse or keyboard input.

Is this kind of project feasible with VFX Forth, specifically with the Community Edition under Windows 11? Or would you say that it is not the best tool for this kind of beginner-friendly, graphical exploration?

In any case, I would really appreciate any help or examples showing how to define a simple window or canvas and draw something basic, like a grid of circles.

Best regards,

Louis

where can I find a step by step example of how to use GUIgen?

Fri, 30 May 2025 01:27:15 +0000

The GUIgen manual and the examples assume I haven't just started using VFX Forth for the first time ever. I can get nowhere without encountering an undefined word.

Example:

INCLUDE C:\MPE\VfxForth64\Examples\Win32\GUIgen\guigen.bld

Including C:\MPE\VfxForth64\Examples\Win32\GUIgen\guigen.bld

Including %GuiLib%\miscwins.fth

Err# -13 ERR: Undefined word.

Source: "C:\MPE\VfxForth64\Examples\Win32\GUIgen\miscwins.fth" on line 374

-> GWL_STYLE GetWindowLong WS_Child and 0<>

INCLUDE C:\MPE\VfxForth64\Examples\Win32\GUIgen\ComboBox.fth

Including C:\MPE\VfxForth64\Examples\Win32\GUIgen\ComboBox.fth

Err# -13 ERR: Undefined word.

Source: "C:\MPE\VfxForth64\Examples\Win32\GUIgen\ComboBox.fth" on line 81

-> WinControl: ComboBox "combobox"

Has anybody been able to compile vfxforth on to a Micro:bit V2 (nrf52833)?

Sun, 25 May 2025 00:09:39 +0000

I’ve compiled mecrisp-stellaris forth on to the Microbit by writing the serial interface for it and modifying the memory map, so I know it can be done. I’ve also compiled the stm32f429disco code and run it on the discovery board, so I know the vfxforth cross compiler works on my M1 Mac.

I’ve spent days trying to figure out what’s not working, I’ve used examples from both the Nrf51 and stm32f4 to build my control file. Apart from the control, start and serial files, are there any other files I need to modify?

I’ve tried debugging with Segger’s Ozone debugger, but it just tells me it’s HardFaulted a few instructions into the code, which doesn’t make sense.

Thanks in advance,

Theo

macOS building standalone app

Fri, 23 May 2025 14:32:23 +0000

Hello,

I am trying to compile a small test program using VFXForth on macOS (arm64).

I open VFXForth using any of these (vfx64, vfxforth64, vfxosx64)

and then I type this:

include hello.fth

SAVE hello.fth

I get "Can't open stubosx64". I tried making stubosx64.mo and stubosx64 available through $PATH on macOS. But I always get the same result.

Any ideas?

Also, when I run "vfx64 hello.fth" my Terminal window is going crazy with the cursor running fast over the Terminal screen but nothing happens, it doesn't execute the program.

EDIT: Nevermind, I just figured out that VFXForth is not compatible with my architecture.

generating a DLL on Windows - missing VfxForthBH_64_win.exe

Wed, 08 Jan 2025 12:40:35 +0000

I am trying to generate a Windows DLL, starting with the GenDllTest.fth example.

However, my distribution (version 5.43 build 4241) does not contain a pair of matched low-memory / high-memory compilers. VfxForthK_64_win.exe does not have init-libs, but both VfxForthB_x64_win.exe and VfxForth_x64_win.exe compile the file successfully, with the DllMain entry reported at different addresses. Unfortunately, that does not seem sufficient for MakeDll.

MakeDll %bin%\VfxForthB_x64_win %bin%\VfxForth_x64_win %mydir%\GenDllTest C:\temp\testdll
Saving C:\temp\testdll
Err# -256 ERR: Execution of a DEFERed word with no ASSIGNed action.
-> MakeDll %bin%\VfxForth_x64_win %bin%\VfxForthB_x64_win %mydir%\GenDllTest C:\temp\testdll
                                                                                            ^
I then tried to make a VfxForthBH_x64_win.exe by using VfxBase64.bld. But (after selecting the latest ExternWin64.fth) I gave up after stumbling on the following error. Also I could not find how to load to make the result load to a higher memory area (just reserve unused space in the dictionary to get an offset?).

Err# -13 ERR: Undefined word.
Source: "c:\Products\VfxCommunity\Sources\VFXBase\CallDefWin64.fth" on line 178
->     [a movsx a] Poff bytePSP, ^ai IntArgReg [a]
                                                   ^

False virus detection of turnkeys

Wed, 01 Jan 2025 01:25:53 +0000

My saved turnkey exe (which has EntryPoint reassigned) is tripping Windows 10 defender on my own machine. The file gets automatically quarantined a few moments after being copied to another folder.

As I recall, I used to have this whenever I did anything with the compiler. Since I'm not in this program, I guess that Windows Defender has gotten more sophisticated with its heuristics.

What can I do that (hopefully) doesn't involve code signing?

Version: 5.20 (build 3797) 32-bit

Building Standalone Programs - getting the example to work?

Thu, 26 Dec 2024 08:50:50 +0000

```
: start \ hmodule 0 commandline show-- res
4drop WalkColdChain
0
;
' start is EntryPoint

SaveConsole hello

```

This creates an executable ```hello.exe``` but that executable doesn't work. The observed behaviour running it from Windows Terminal in Windows 10 is that after a pause, nothing happens:

```
PS C:\Users\andre> hello
PS C:\Users\andre>
```

Could IF...THEN mismatches be trapped more tidily?

Wed, 04 Dec 2024 11:09:34 +0000

If you do something stupid like

: TT THEN ;

(in real life it's always part of a much more complex function)

then in VFX out of the box, you get:

CS=0033 FS=0000 GS=0000
RAX=0000:0000:0047:5A10 RBX=0000:0000:0000:0000
RCX=0000:0000:0000:0000 RDX=0000:0000:0047:46B8
RSI=0000:7FFF:77F0:5D90 RDI=0000:0000:1FD0:E000
RBP=0000:7FFF:77F0:4D58 RSP=0000:7FFF:77EF:4D08
R8 =0000:7FFF:77F0:5D90 R9 =0000:0000:1FD0:E000
R10=0000:0000:0000:0000 R11=0000:0000:0000:0246
R12=0000:7FFF:77EF:4C78 R13=0000:7FFF:77F0:5D50
R8 =0000:7FFF:77F0:4D58 R9 =0000:7FFF:77EF:4D08
RIP=0000:0000:0048:20A5 EFLAGS=0001:0246
--- RS top ---
$0000:0000:0048:2C3F >C_RES_BRANCH
$0000:0000:0042:FBDB DEFER
$0000:0000:0042:1C41 THEN
$0000:0000:0042:B1A3 (NDCS,)
$0000:0000:0047:8464 NDCS-REF
$0000:0000:0042:FBDB DEFER
$0000:0000:0042:F622 (INTERPRET)
$0000:0000:0042:FBDB DEFER
Signal number SIGSEGV
at address 0000:0000:0048:20A5, probably in >ARES

and you have to go right to the bottom to get a clue.

If you use Nick's critical error handler, you get instead:

Illegal memory access, probably in >ARES, called from:
>C_RES_BRANCH DEFER THEN (NDCS,) NDCS-REF DEFER (INTERPRET) DEFER

which at least gets you to the clue in the first line, and even more of a clue in the second line.

But inexperienced Forthers are initially unaware of how to interpret the trace.

It would be really good if VFX told you straight

"Suspected mismatched THEN in definition TT"

Can old installation of VFX be preserved after new installation?

Fri, 15 Nov 2024 11:34:25 +0000

I have VFX V4.71 (for Windows) installed.

Just purchased and downloaded whatever the latest version is.

Can I install the new version without 'disturbing' the previous one which I want to use for maintaining existing programs?

embedding VfxForth into an interpreted language?

Thu, 07 Nov 2024 18:39:40 +0000

J, an array language, is my main language and find it excellent for 95% of what I do, mainly data analysis working directly from the REPL.

Forth looks great for my remaining 5%, such as:

domain specific sublanguages,
on the fly compilation of complex calculation logic that has to run through millions of loops,
higher level bindings to systems that require repeated DLL calls using small (i.e. non array) objects
(plus a possible smack of hardware tinkering with data loggers).

I never got round to doing all this in C because on Linux I just find a quick and dirty workaround with shell scripts, whilst on Windows, I wouldn't touch a C compiler with a snake hook.

Ideally, I would like to have both a J and a Forth interactive session open simultaneously, which communicate together, as both languages have the same type of interactive development. I will try and do this with a thread on each side communicating through a websocket. However, this would eventually require sending big arrays back and Forth; if on the other hand I use shared libraries (one way or the other, but more likely J calling Forth), I will be loosing lots of interactivity.
The J FFI can allocate a chunk of memory (full forth system?) and directly call a memory address if needed, as well as provide pointers to the data areas of arrays: maybe this is the way to go in the long run?

So I was wondering, can VfXForth be loaded into the address space of another interpreter to combine the benefits of interactive development without any overheads?
(the use case would probably be for semi-tested code, to reduce the frequency of crashes...)

getting started with libXL

Tue, 05 Nov 2024 14:01:21 +0000

newbie question, not yet comfortable with vocaularies. on VXF Forth for Win64 on a freshly installed system. Getting libXL (and more generally Externals) to work is important for convincing my boss to use VXF tools.

When including libXL, I get a complaint that "C" is unknown. I then tried to load the file defining the missing word (recursively). It seems that Externals bailed out at line 924, before "C" is defined (line 1849). What am I missing?

include C:\MPE\VfxForth64\Lib\SharedLibs\libXL\libXL.fth
Including C:\MPE\VfxForth64\Lib\SharedLibs\libXL\libXL.fth
Err# -13 ERR: Undefined word.
Source: "C:\MPE\VfxForth64\Lib\SharedLibs\libXL\libXL.fth" on line 74
-> : XLAPIENTRY "C" ;
^

include C:\MPE\VfxForth64\VFXBase\Extern.fth
Including C:\MPE\VfxForth64\VFXBase\Extern.fth
TYPES is redefined
EXTERN.VOC is redefined
EXTERNWARNINGS? is redefined
EXTERNREDEFS? is redefined
LIBREDEFS? is redefined
INEXTERNALS? is redefined
INEXTERNALS is redefined
INCURRENT is redefined
CLEAR-LIB is redefined
CLEAR-LIBS is redefined
INIT-LIBS is redefined
FIND-LIBFUNCTION is redefined
.LIBS is redefined
#BADLIBS is redefined
.BADLIBS is redefined
LIBRARY: is redefined
TOPLIB is redefined
FIRSTLIB is redefined
[FIRSTLIB] is redefined
EXTERNLINKED is redefined
INIT-IMPORTS is redefined
Err# -13 ERR: Undefined word.
Source: "C:\MPE\VfxForth64\VFXBase\Extern.fth" on line 924
->   [ also asm-core ] asm-end asm-start [ previous ] ;    \ flush assembler
                               ^
include C:\MPE\VfxForth64\Kernel\x64Com\sam8687.fth
Including C:\MPE\VfxForth64\Kernel\x64Com\sam8687.fth
Err# -258 ERR: Failed to open requested file.
-> include C:\MPE\VfxForth64\Kernel\x64Com\sam8687.fth
                                                      ^
include C:\MPE\VfxForth64\Kernel\x64Com\asm8687.fth
Including C:\MPE\VfxForth64\Kernel\x64Com\asm8687.fth
ASM-CORE is redefined
ASM-ACCESS is redefined
Err# -13 ERR: Undefined word.
Source: "C:\MPE\VfxForth64\Kernel\x64Com\asm8687.fth" on line 581
-> compiler
           ^

Command line history in the console app

Sun, 06 Oct 2024 14:53:08 +0000

I have VFX Forth running in Windows terminal (see VFXFORTH -console - Q&A). Stephen commented "The primary VFX kernel (vfxkern.exe) is also a console app but has only a minimal set of tools"

I would like to rebuild in the command line history feature in the console app. Thus I can continue to use that feature when running VFX Forth in Windows Terminal. That is, saving the input line to a history (ENTER) and retrieving the input line from a buffer (UP).

May I ask for some pointers as to how I might work to achieve this? I suppose I need to find a hook into "ENTER" and "UP" in the outer interpreter, or maybe there is a better way of thinking about this.

Has anyone got a working version of XML.FTH?

Tue, 24 Sep 2024 19:53:54 +0000

I'm having trouble getting clean output from the XML parser in XML.FTH

It compiles without trouble (except for flagging a redefinition of -WHITE) but the output I get appears to be mis-parsed. There are a lot of partial words noted as tags (e.g.

Unknown :erty: Status 0000:0000

Contents: :

Tag Text:erty name="name"ion":

The Tag Text 'erty' should actually be "Property" and the name text "name"ion" should actually be "GtkAction"

There are also frequent sections of corrupted output such as:

Unknown :child: Status 0000:0000

Contents: :

Tag Text:child:

Attribute=class Value=GtkAction

Attribute=id Value=save_menu_item

Attribute= Value=ac

Attribute=<?ꀀ?4@??????N?????????????\H???????N???????G?????@

6??????U???????;??????????????;???????\N??????????????;???????0?????@

@????? /??????@+????????f???????5??????\U????? C?????P???????

PeH??????????????@?????p?^?????6???????P??????#??????>?????PeG????? ??????? (continues for several screens)

Looking through the code I could see a number of words that needed to be updated to 64-bit VFX Forth (e.g. the output word ?i had to be redefined to use L@ instead of @) but fixing those seems to have no effect on the problematic output.

Has anyone been through this and perhaps fixed it for 64-bit?

thanks

Bruno Degazio

Toronto

VFXFORTH -console

Tue, 03 Sep 2024 04:22:22 +0000

Hi Stephen, Gerald,

Windows 11 Pro. Windows Terminal Version: 1.20.11781.0 is the default console. I open PowerShell in Windows Terminal and enter:

VFXFORTH -console

the result is a new GUI console window running VFX Forth. What I would like to achieve is have VFX Forth run in Windows Terminal console itself (no new GUI window). How could that be done?

The purpose is:

1) Use the ANSI ESC codes which Windows Terminal supports to show embedded telemetry

2) Open a Windows Terminal on a remote machine with SSH, run VFX Forth in that terminal and interact with it remotely through the SSH client

VFX 64 for Arm Linux

Thu, 22 Aug 2024 10:07:35 +0000

We would really appreciate an updated timetable on this.

We currently have around a dozen applications on VFX 32 for Arm Linux, all of which will need updating - the necessary 32 bit libraries are getting harder and harder to install.

How could this state machine (traffic light) be optimized further?

Mon, 03 Jun 2024 02:11:21 +0000

Please see: https://gist.github.com/lf94/2700524fa42b76e86b047f35febd6370?permalink_comment_id=5076321#gistcomment-5076321

The vfxforth time to run 1 billion transitions is about 1.5s. The OCAML version is 1.0s. There is also a Rust version we ran which came out to 0.5s.

Obviously, these are amazing times. Rust uses LLVM, a multi-billion dollar optimizer. Being 1s away from this is crazy!

I've been trying, but having difficulty squeezing further speed though out of vfxforth. I would LOVE for some internal people to chime in here, and tell me how I can go faster! Thank you so much!

Something wrong with "include" on VFX Windows 5.43 build 4241

Tue, 28 May 2024 13:05:34 +0000

Loading this simple Forth program with "include" after using "cold":

empty
4 constant /reg
create registers 0 l, 0 l, 0 l, 0 l, 0 l, 0 l, 0 l, 0 l,
registers 32 dump

Gives the result:

0000:0000:0059:4870  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................
0000:0000:0059:4880  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................

That's correct, but immediately after loading it:

registers 32 dump
0000:0000:0059:4870  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................
0000:0000:0059:4880  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  90 48 59 00 00 00 00 00  .........HY.....

Where "90 48 59 00" is the value of "here". Something in include corrupted the dictionary.

This doesn't happen if:
1. You just copy and paste the code.
2. You use include-file.

The length of the path seems to be part of the issue: mine is 81 characters.

Cant download Tarball for Vfx Forth 64 for Linux ?

Sat, 02 Mar 2024 09:24:07 +0000

https://www.mpeforth.com/arena/ProgramForth.pdf gives error 404

Sun, 25 Feb 2024 10:41:28 +0000

https://www.mpeforth.com/arena/ProgramForth.pdf

gives error, 404

Brg /Richard

Type mismatch calling external library on Windows

Sat, 10 Feb 2024 06:35:35 +0000

Hi there, I’m calling a function InitWindow from the raylib library using library: and extern:. I can get the function to run just fine on my M1 Mac, but on Windows it crashes.

I think the exception code there is for a type mismatch from what I could find, but this didn’t make much sense to me since it works on the M1.

I tried compiling the library with MSVC and mingw64 just in case, but no luck. I’ve also tried switching between pascal and “c”, but I’m out of ideas.

Anyway if anyone’s got any suggestions I’d love to hear them.

Multitasking on RPi INIT_MULTI doesn't exist, where is multitasking Library?

Tue, 16 Jan 2024 17:39:01 +0000

I found some useful code on an old hard disk, and thought I would try it out on my new RPi VFX system It bombed out on the first entry INIT_MULTI. I understand that this word is defined in the multitasking library. I have searched through all of the files that got down loaded when I installed VFX, but have been unable to locate it. Any suggestions. Regards Dave Robinson

Is somewhere free EBook about VFXForth?

Sun, 14 Jan 2024 19:51:42 +0000

I'm newbe in Forth.

Is somewhere free EBook about VFXForth?

How to access a 'C' float in a callback?

Wed, 20 Dec 2023 00:13:22 +0000

Hi,

I'm trying to access the float ( 'C' 32bit float ) in the following callback.

The callback is called correctly and the two ints and two pointers are correct, but the float prints as -NaN.

CallDef: int scrollWheel-cb( *, float, int, int, *):
cr ." wheelcb " . . . . f. 0 ;

What do I need to to do to access the float correctly?

I'm using VFX Forth 5.41 on Windows 10.

Thanks.

Err# -1001 Invalid type in EXTERN: import

Sun, 10 Dec 2023 12:24:56 +0000

Including lib/allegro-5.2.5.vfx
Err# -1001 Invalid type in EXTERN: import
Source: "lib/allegro-5.2.5.vfx" on line 2520
-> extern "C" int al_attach_audio_stream_to_mixer( void * stream, void * mixer );

This line used to work prior to VFX64.

Which floating point system to use for MacOS (Cocoa)?

Thu, 02 Nov 2023 13:59:21 +0000

In VFX 5.41 I'm still having trouble with OSCalls that require or return floating point parameters. For example, the following Cocoa Call should return two floats, but instead returns none:

COCOA: @locationInWindow ( -- ) ( -- nspointx nspointy ) \ Returns the receiver’s location in the base coordinate system of the associated window.

This OS call and many others using floats as input or output worked fine in vfx 5.2 with SSE (and the associated Cocoa package from Roelf.)

In 5.41 I'm using the SSE Float system, which is working well in every other respect. Would it work better with the NDP Float system? OR change back to the previous 5.2 Cocoa package?

Any advice would be welcome.

thank you,

Bruno Degazio

Which FP package to use for MacOS?

Tue, 31 Oct 2023 13:55:16 +0000

My application uses floats mainly in the MacOS graphics and UI calls, which sometimes need single or double float parameters.

My existing code (built on VFX 5.2) has been working well with SSE despite the fixes needed to get the FP-based system calls to work correctly (DFIX, and COCOA-DFIX, etc.).

Are these fixes still needed in VFX 5.4? The DFIX, etc. code is still present in the Cocoa folder, but it seems to be implied that it are only needed if using the NDP-based FP system.

thank you

Bruno Degazio

Where to download VFX for MacOS, version 5.4x?

Sat, 28 Oct 2023 13:34:26 +0000

After downloading the MacOS tarball from the Downloads page (MyVFX->Downloads) , it seems to be version 5.20, not the recent 5.41 and 5.42 versions mentioned elsewhere. All files are dated May 27, 2021.

Is there another Downloads area to use for the newer versions?

thanks

Bruno Degazio

undefined word compile ?

Sun, 17 Sep 2023 08:50:18 +0000

Hello, I am trying to define a word that acts like ." but will call an extra word on execution, i have called it d". I copied the code for ." from the kernel to test but it says it cant find the word compile ? I checked other dictionaries, checked the manual, I am at the limit of my understanding with ndcs and would be most grateful if anyone could help :)

: (d"-run) ( -- )
    \ Runtime action of d"
    r> count  2dup + aligned >r  type

;
: d"
    [char] " word $.  ;
    ndcs: ( -- )  discard-sinline compile (d"-run)  ",  ;

Fixing RebuildLin64.sh broken on Linux x64, patch supplied

Mon, 28 Aug 2023 08:18:44 +0000

Hello

In order to integrate PDFhelp.fth into the kernel I had to make ./RebuildLin64.sh work. It says in the manual be careful of paths, which I automated, and fixed a couple of typos as well.

So now no more include for PDFhelp.fth, it just works when I boot Forth, happy bunny :)

Binary files ../../VfxForth64Lin.VIRGIN/Bin/VfxForth_x64_lin.elf and ./Bin/VfxForth_x64_lin.elf differ

diff -ruN ../../VfxForth64Lin.VIRGIN/Kernel/mlin64.sh ./Kernel/mlin64.sh

--- ../../VfxForth64Lin.VIRGIN/Kernel/mlin64.sh 2023-06-09 11:36:10.000000000 +0100

+++ ./Kernel/mlin64.sh 2023-08-27 19:06:03.625947939 +0100

@@ -6,12 +6,12 @@

 

 # build arguments

 VFX_ARGS="1 constant Community?"

-if [ "$VFX_BATCH_MODE" -eq "1" ]; then

+if [ "$VFX_BATCH_MODE" = "1" ]; then

     VFX_ARGS+=" 1 constant BatchMode"

 fi

 

 # save the INI file

-cp ~/.VfxForth/VfxForth.ini ini.temp

+cp ~/.VfxForth/VfxForth64.ini ini.temp

 

 # Build the desktop version

 # TODO CI2020 stephen: why isn't that crosscompile in the buildkit?

@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@

 $XCDIR/x64.elf $VFX_ARGS include x64lin1.ctl

 mv -f VFXFORTH.img  vfxkern64.elf

 chmod +x vfxkern64.elf

-cp -a vfxkern64.elf  ../Images/VfxForthK_x64_lin.elf

+cp -a vfxkern64.elf ${XCDIR}/VfxForthK_x64_lin.elf

 

 # restore the INI file

-mv ini.temp ~/.VfxForth/VfxForth.ini

+mv ini.temp ~/.VfxForth/VfxForth64.ini

Binary files ../../VfxForth64Lin.VIRGIN/Kernel/vfxkern64.elf and ./Kernel/vfxkern64.elf differ

Binary files ../../VfxForth64Lin.VIRGIN/Kernel/XREF.XRF and ./Kernel/XREF.XRF differ

diff -ruN ../../VfxForth64Lin.VIRGIN/RebuildLin64.sh ./RebuildLin64.sh

--- ../../VfxForth64Lin.VIRGIN/RebuildLin64.sh 2023-06-09 11:36:10.000000000 +0100

+++ ./RebuildLin64.sh 2023-08-27 19:28:23.128666912 +0100

@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@

 #! /bin/bash

-INI_FILE=${VFX_DEFAULT_INI:-$HOME/.VfxForth/VfxForth.ini}

+INI_FILE=${VFX_DEFAULT_INI:-$HOME/.VfxForth/VfxForth64.ini}

 INI_TEMP=ini.temp

 

 [ -f $INI_FILE ] && cp $INI_FILE $INI_TEMP

@@ -9,6 +9,15 @@

 ./mlin64.sh $*

 cd ..

 if [ "$VFX_BATCH_MODE" != "1" ]; then

-    ./CopyLin64.sh

+    # ./CopyLin64.sh

+

+    printf "\n\n                 !!!! IMPORTANT PLEASE READ !!!! \n\n"

+    printf "Rebuild64.sh tries to execute ./CopyLin64.sh which does not exist !\n"

+    printf "I can't find the code for this file but from the name and the fact that\n"

+    printf "is right at the end I would guess that it copies the 64 bit linux exes\n"

+    printf "to Linux ... I would suggest you run ./InstallMe.Lin64.sh instead :)"

+    printf "\n\n"

+

 fi

+

 [ -f $INI_TEMP ] && mv $INI_TEMP $INI_FILE

diff -ruN ../../VfxForth64Lin.VIRGIN/VFXBase/mlin64.sh ./VFXBase/mlin64.sh

--- ../../VfxForth64Lin.VIRGIN/VFXBase/mlin64.sh 2023-06-09 11:36:10.000000000 +0100

+++ ./VFXBase/mlin64.sh 2023-08-27 18:59:10.784766919 +0100

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@

 

 # CI2020: setup directories

 VFX_BUILDKIT_DIR=${VFX_BUILDKIT_DIR:-$HOME/buildkit.dev}

-VFX_DEFAULT_INI=${VFX_DEFAULT_INI:-$HOME/.VfxForth/VfxForth.ini}

+VFX_DEFAULT_INI=${VFX_DEFAULT_INI:-$HOME/.VfxForth/VfxForth64.ini}

 

 # default values

 BUILD_LEVEL=2

@@ -19,12 +19,24 @@

 # save INI file

 cp $VFX_DEFAULT_INI ini.temp

 

+# Build the desktop version

+# TODO CI2020 stephen: why isn't that crosscompile in the buildkit?

+if [ -d ../Images ]; then

+  XCDIR=../Images

+else

+  if [ -d ../Bin ]; then

+    XCDIR=../Bin

+  else

+    XCDIR=${HOME}/buildkit.dev/software/COMPILER

+  fi

+fi

+

 # Build proper

 cp VfxLin.no VfxLin.tmp

-../Images/VfxForthK_x64_lin.elf  $VFX_ARGS

-cp -a vfxlin64 ../Images/VfxForth_x64_lin.elf

+${XCDIR}/VfxForthK_x64_lin.elf  $VFX_ARGS

+cp -a vfxlin64 ${XCDIR}/VfxForth_x64_lin.elf

 # mv -f vfxlin64 ../Images/VfxForth_x64_lin.elf

-chmod +x ../Images/VfxForth_x64_lin.elf

+chmod +x ${XCDIR}/VfxForth_x64_lin.elf

 cp VfxLin.tmp VfxLin.no

 

 # restore INI file

diff -ruN ../../VfxForth64Lin.VIRGIN/VFXBase/VfxBase64.bld ./VFXBase/VfxBase64.bld

--- ../../VfxForth64Lin.VIRGIN/VFXBase/VfxBase64.bld 2023-08-27 19:32:54.755206149 +0100

+++ ./VFXBase/VfxBase64.bld 2023-08-27 19:03:15.535811987 +0100

@@ -152,7 +152,7 @@

 cr .( XREF )                    include ../Lib/xref

 cr .( DocGen )                  include ../Lib/DocGen4

 \ The next line should be the last of this group

-cr .( Config save/restore )                 include Lin32/SysConfig

+cr .( Config save/restore )                 include Lin64/SysConfig

 [THEN]

 

 [defined] Target_AA64_Linux [IF]

Binary files ../../VfxForth64Lin.VIRGIN/VFXBase/vfxlin64 and ./VFXBase/vfxlin64 differ

diff -ruN ../../VfxForth64Lin.VIRGIN/VFXBase/VfxLin64.no ./VFXBase/VfxLin64.no

--- ../../VfxForth64Lin.VIRGIN/VFXBase/VfxLin64.no 2023-06-09 11:36:10.000000000 +0100

+++ ./VFXBase/VfxLin64.no 2023-08-27 19:28:30.224730620 +0100

@@ -1 +1 @@

-5.41 [build 0183]

\ No newline at end of file

+5.41 [build 0197]

\ No newline at end of file

Fixing help broken on Linux x64, patch supplied

Mon, 21 Aug 2023 10:55:49 +0000

Hello

So just starting out with VFX Forth and there is a lot to like but I noticed that the help function is broken.

help help

%LOAD_PATH%/../doc/VfxLin.vix

Cannot open HELP index file

-> help help

I tried setting up HelpBase$ to the correct string as per the manual but still failure, so I got to digging around in the source code, and learning some more forth while I was at it.

The first problem was with pattern matching, that extra space needs to be removed else the code will never match an index.

209c209

< ", \entry{\code {"

---

> ", \entry {\code {"

The second was that there was a missing check for _x64 target for the code to save and load config from the .INI file, so nothing was saved.

397a398

> [defined] Target_x64_Linux or

Next %LOAD_PATH% is used to help locate where the help files are, but %LOAD_PATH% is set to the path of the executable that is running, so if you do a scripted install it is at /usr/local/bin, thats a long way from /home/xxx/VfxForth/Doc/ ? It works better if you start VfxForth directly from its /VfxForth/Bin dir but by default its software linked to /usr/local/bin.

I changed from %LOAD_PATH% to %BASEPATH% that points directly to the /home/xxx/VfxForth dir then modified the rest of the path.

192c192

< s" %LOAD_PATH%/../doc/VfxLin" HelpBase$ place

---

> s" %BASEPATH%/Doc/VfxLin64" HelpBase$ place

Lastly I changed the default address to point to “~/VfxForth/Doc/VfxLin” which is perhaps a better option than “/usr/share/doc/VfxForth/Doc/VfxLin” ?

404c405

< s" HelpBase" HelpBase$ /Help$ s" /usr/share/doc/VfxForth/Doc/VfxLin" Ini.ReadStr

---

> s" HelpBase" HelpBase$ /Help$ s" ~/VfxForth/Doc/VfxLin" Ini.ReadStr

Having made these changes, and then executing …

include /home/dave/VfxForth64Lin/Lib/PDFhelp.fth

Help works out of the box :) … only problem is it does not survive restarts, thinking the library files are compiled into the kernel and as such will have to recompile the kernel to keep the modified PDFhelp.fth ?

I have not managed to do this yet.

So I hope this is useful, thanks once again for an excellent Forth from a relative Forth beginner :)

POSTPONE state switching

Wed, 09 Aug 2023 09:13:40 +0000

The words [[ and ]] which switch into and out of the POSTPONE state were introduced a while ago. They turn out to be very useful.

But the documentation (section 4.29.2) states ...

"The ]] ... [[ notation is experimental and my be removed in a future version"

Can you confirm that these words are now official?

Very useful VOCDOT - could this be ANSI?

Wed, 09 Aug 2023 09:07:08 +0000

The release notes do not mention the introduction of the new VOCDOT recogniser. We only just noticed it.

It looks as though it could be a really, really useful addition to Forth!

Is this a candidate for the ANSI standard?

A few minor issues with V5.41 on Linux64

Wed, 09 Aug 2023 09:01:44 +0000

a) The release notes state that "the base VFX64 does not include an FP pack". In fact, NDP387 is in the base system. If you need SSE64 then you have to remove NDP387 first. The documentation does not highlight that the NDP387 recogniser also needs to be manually removed - see my other post.

b) The compilation of FPSSE64S.fth leaves a couple of items on the number stack. These are non-functional problems, but on our build they flag an alert. The problem is a couple of NIP s missing. Line 307 etc. should be ...

c" FP-PACK" find NIP FPsystem SSE64System = and
dup [IF] cr ." SSE64System pack already compiled" [THEN]
?StopIncluding

c" FP-PACK" find NIP FPsystem 0<> or
[IF] cr ." Remove existing float pack before compiling this one" abort [THEN]