I suppose it would be a good start to mention where I am with the CamelForth project.
What is CamelForth?
CamelForth is a Forth implementation for embedded microprocessors (8051, 8086, Z80, and 6809, with more to come). It is compatible with ANS Forth. It was originally developed as an educational project for The Computer Journal, but has since become popular for embedded systems programming.
It was written by Brad Rodriguez, and is well documented in his Moving Forth series of articles.
The Z80 version was ported to the Z88dk toolset by James Bowman. For the RC2014 Mini II (https://z80kits.com/shop/rc2014-mini-ii/), by Z80Kits, I took James Bowman’s port and ported it to a 8kibibyte ROM, with a couple of extra utilities, uses the default serial MC68B50 ACIA IC of the RC2014…
However, since the RC2024 Mini II gained the CP/M upgrade board, wouldn’t it be neat if it supported the Compact Flash, for basic disk BLOCK support…? Yes, I thought so, too.
Where am I?
Currently, the state of play is that basic disk BLOCK system works, but the more I learn about Forth, the more I keep refactoring the code. I even have a block screed editor. Fun times!
But, it isn’t complete. I want to turn it into a fully self-contained Forth-based workstation:
- I want it to be forth-2012 compliant, so code can be ported more easily.
- that means testing!
- missing words, that won’t fit in the ROM, will be loadable from disk, in source form.
- Finish the disk driver support, to allow more disk hardware to be used
- I want it to support a Z80 assembler
- when Forth code just doesn’t quite run fast enough.
- Explore the capabilities of this platform, with :
- graphics, using the TMS8819 boards?
- sound?
- Documentation
- umm, yes….
- Allow the Forth to compile itself. (may I’ll leave this for the next RetroChallenge)
- Most importantly, I need to finish this project!