HES FORTH for VIC20 available?

[edx]

Thanks Nyef.

As Datatronic VICFORTH was mentioned below is a link to that one. I've updated the zip with a new version of the MS-DOS screen editor (old one didn't work under DOSBOX for some reason). Also included is a disassembly. There appears to be some free space in the ROM image potentially allowing a bug-fix for the U* U/ functions which plagued this and other early 6502 Fig-forth implementations.

http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?fi ... 5148614814

[cbmeeks]

I just searched for "VIC-20 HES" on eBay and saw a listing for $10 or so that had a bunch of carts. In the lot, was a red labeled HES Forth cart. Might be worth bidding on.

commodorejohn wrote:

...you cleaned your keyboard with an India pale ale?

I clean mine with single malt Scotch while I'm drinking Isopropyl alcohol.

Oh crap...I think I've been doing that backwards!

nyef wrote:

I have no problem with sending the file to some person or organization that will deal with it appropriately, I have no idea who or what that might be.

Best place to ask would be over at the Denial forums. If you want to send the file to me, I will start a topic over there and ask where to archive it. I don't think there were many Forth's made for the VIC-20 so it would be nice to have.

Thanks for doing that!

[edx]

A zip containing HES VICFORTH dump, manual scan and disassembly is here:

http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?fi ... 1945757767

Thanks to everyone involved!

[cbmeeks]

When I try to decompress it, it says not an archive.

How was it packaged up?

[barrym95838]

It seems to download and extract just fine on my beat-up old Windoze Vi$ta machine.

[cbmeeks]

Well, it's probably because I can't visit that download site from where I'm at. So I did it on my phone and sent the file over to DropBox. Then copied from DropBox to my PC. So I guess it got messed up in the translations.

I will try again later when I'm on a real computer.

[edx]

cbmeeks wrote:

When I try to decompress it, it says not an archive.

How was it packaged up?

WinRAR in ZIP mode. D/loaded & it extracted ok with WinRAR and Win10 explorer.

[cbmeeks]

I use 7zip which works with RAR files. I think the problem was my phone. When I am at home later, on my real computer, I will download it then.

[cbmeeks]

FYI, I uploaded the ROM here:

http://sleepingelephant.com/ipw-web/bul ... f=2&t=9484

I also tested it in Vice. Seemed to work but my Forth skills are very rusty.

Thanks!

[edx]

I encountered an issue that puzzling. After loading a screen previously saved to a file (cassette or disk) it would be followed
by a string of junk graphic characters and an error msg. I managed to avoid the spurious junk and error msg by executing
the following after booting up HES VICFORTH:

FIRST LIMIT OVER - ERASE

This zeroes the disk buffers in RAM including the important 4 extra bytes that follow each buffer. Those 4 bytes not being
zero is what caused the junk/error message.

What's puzzling is that I should need to this at all. I'm using VICE. Maybe a real VIC with HES cartridge works differently?

[edx]

edx wrote:

What's puzzling is that I should need to this at all.

Ok so I found out the same can be achieved using WIPE.

1 EDIT WIPE

will initialize the buffer after which the LOADS command can be used to retrieve the screen from the file without the
junk & error message.

[cbmeeks]

FYI,

You can find the manual here:
https://archive.org/details/VIC_Forth_1982_HES

Along with the binary I uploaded here:
https://archive.org/details/hes-vic-forth

[edx]

cbmeeks wrote:

FYI,
You can find the manual here:
https://archive.org/details/VIC_Forth_1982_HES

An ascii text OCR of the manual will be available shortly. I need to clean up a few errors.

[edx]

edx wrote:

An ascii text OCR of the manual will be available shortly. I need to clean up a few errors.

It's now ready. I omitted scans of the fig-Forth manual included in the PDF (not sure it was
originally provided and can be obtained separately in any case).

http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?fi ... 9800039123

[edx]

edx wrote:

edx wrote:

What's puzzling is that I should need to this at all.

Ok so I found out the same can be achieved using WIPE.

1 EDIT WIPE

will initialize the buffer after which the LOADS command can be used to retrieve the screen from the file without the
junk & error message.

Reading the manual I was reminded of an easier way. Just place ;S after the last item on the
screen that you want interpreted. ;S immediately stops forth from interpreting the remainder
of the screen - thereby avoiding the problematic trailing null bytes.