OT: Forth on Sharp PC-1500 question
#1

Hello,
sorry if it's OT, but I don't know another place to ask. I recently got an device for testing data-transfer via radio for the Sharp pc-1500, and included is the PC-Forth from RVS. I also have a manual as pdf, but it's OCRed, hence my problem:
According to the manual:

Quote:
Due to technical reasons, PC-Forth always uses " instead of "

Apparently the OCR misinterpreted the String delimiter. I tried using the quotes, but

."Test"
does not work, and on its keyboard, the PC-1500 does not have that many signs that look similar to the quotes.

So does anyone know how to use Strings in PC-Forth?

Have a nice weekend! Klaus

#2

I don't know what "RVS" or "OCR" stand for in your post, but to enter a quoted string literal in Forth, you need to put a space after the first quote mark. Otherwise it'll look for a word with a 7-character name called ."Test" and say it's not found. Remember there's no punctuation in Forth. Everything is a word, including ." (pronounced "dot-quote"). For the command-line interpreter to see it and know what to do with it, it has to have a space between it and your first string character T. ." will look for the final quote mark as a delimiter.

Garth

E-mail: wilsonmineszdslextremezcom (replace the z's with @ and .)

#3

Just a guess, but how about a single quote: ' (instead of ")

#4

Hi Garth,
thank you for your answer. I don't get that to work. Since the manual explicitly mentions that the quote-sign (") from fig-Forth is written as something else in PC-Forth, I think there must be another character starting a String. Would this character be bentioned in the vocabulary (listed with VLIST in PC-Forth)?

RVS = The company that ported Forth to the Sharp PC-1500
With OCR I mean converting the images from the scanner to text

#5

That might be the solution, but I don't know how to input that character (it is a PC-1500 keyboard legend).

#6

Hi, where can I find the forth program for the PC1500 (I got one)?

Thanks in advance.

-- Antonio

#7

"Klaus1500" was my alias in my new webbrowser, because I didn't have the login information at hand...

Hi Antonio,

The Forth program is stored in the device I acquired. To run it, you have to type in a command, then it is copied to the CE-161 ram card. Please note that this version of Forth has some special commands to communicate with the device, apart from that, it seems to be the standard version 1.1 of PC-Forth from RVS.
I did not find any information about it on the internet, but I have seen it appear once on TAS as a cassette version.

#8

Hi Klaus,

Forth on the PC-1500 sounds pretty neat.

Quote:
The Forth program is stored in the device I acquired

By this do you mean it is stored in the PC-1500 memory? Or do you load it from a separate module?

If it's in the memory, it should be possible to save it to a cassette tape or as a sound file on the PC. If it can be saved, then I'd like a copy so I could play around with it.

I have several PC-1500A with the plotter. Great little computer.

Bill

#9

Yes, you can use the forth in your PC-1500A (provided you also have a CE-161 ram-card).

The device I acquired ( a BMC datalogger) has the forth built-in. To use it, you use a special command for the datalogger, then it is copied on you 16K ram card (CE-161). Now the forth can be used without the datalogger (it contains some commands to control the datalogger, but they won't bother you).

Currently I am building a RS-232 cable, so I might be able to copy an image to my PC.

If you can write a program that PEEKs all the memory of the CE-161, and saves it on a cassette tape, I could produce a cassette image (or a .wav file) now. (According to the manual, all information is stored on the CE-161 and not in the memory of the PC-1500).

#10

Hi Klaus,

If I understand you, the datalogger is a device that probally plugs into an expansion port and it has the Forth language in it. I'm wondering if it actually copies the entire Forth to the CE-161 or if it just sets up the data structure on the CE-161 and then makes calls to the rom of the datalogger.

One way to find out would be to initialize the forth from the datalogger, then remove the datalogger and see if the forth still works without the datalogger being attached.

From reading the CE-161 manual, it can be set up several diferent ways, depending upon the switch setting and some poke commands.

I'm not not sure if the module can be peeked by a basic program. I'll have to get my module out and play around with it this weekend.

Please do the test of removing the datalogger and seeing if the forth still works. If it doesn't then making a copy of the forth could be difficult.

If you want to take this off-line, you can reply through yo my hpmuseum e-mail link.

Thanks,

Bill

#11

Quote:
If I understand you, the datalogger is a device that probally plugs into an expansion port
Yes, it plugs into the connector on the top of the CE-150 Plotter


Quote:
One way to find out would be to initialize the forth from the datalogger, then remove the datalogger and see if the forth still works without the datalogger being attached.
Yes, this was the first thing I did. It works without the device.
#12

Quote:
It works without the device.

Fantastic!! Then it should be possible to dump it out of the CE-161. I'll try some playing around with the PC-1500 and CE-161 this weekend to see what it might take to dump the memory to tape.

I did get your e-mail message and will be taking this further off-line with you.

Bill

Edited: 31 May 2007, 7:30 a.m.



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