BitWise wrote:
All we need is a better boot ROM. The question is should it be a better machine code monitor, a Forth environment or a simple operating system?
This might sound strange coming from me, but I wonder if a better Monitor might be the best solution because it would provide the most flexibility for people who, say, want to add a version of BASIC. Maybe keep the entry points for the important subroutines such as PUT_CHR for backwards compatibility, but then add XMODEM and code for handling the Flash stuff ... if it fits.
(I'm not sure about the whole tone generator and RTC stuff that is currently included, does anybody really use either? I'd sort of assumed that if you're going to have a RTC, it would probably be something battery-backed in hardware ...)
The other option, though, would in fact be an "Open Firmware" type Forth that makes a point of exposing the basic routines such as PUT_CHR and whatnot at the current jump addresses for backwards compatibility. It wouldn't have to be able to do much, and I'm wondering if this might be a case where a Token Threaded Forth might be the best solution to keep stuff small (256 8-bit tokens, say), because for these mostly interactive admin things you wouldn't care so much about speed anyway. So you'd keep the access to the low-level system libraries, but could do basic Forth things as well.