arrayForth notes Part 1

I haven't had a lot of time to work on my EVB001 eval board.  The time between sessions can go weeks and I tend to forget a lot of stuff.  These are notes to myself... sort of dead simple exercises to use as restart points.  So...

Here is an example of just attaching to a node and getting it to do some computation. What you type into arrayForth is displayed in Courier font.

First, you need to make sure a-com is set to the attached COM port.
a-com (this should display the com port number)


If the com port is incorrect, you must change it.  Do this:
def a-com (enter into the editor)


Navigate to the value, make the change, type save and exit/re-enter arrayForth.
(Hint:  Press ';'  to position the cursor just after the number; press 'n' to delete it; use 'u' to insert the new number; press ESC to leave that mode; press SPACE to exit editor and then type save )


Check the value again (a-com).


Now, let's go ahead and hook into node 600:
host load panel (load host code and display the panel)
talk 0 600 hook upd (talk to the chip, wire up to node 600 and update the stack view)


You should now see a bunch of numbers on the stack, starting with line 3.


Now, let's throw a couple of numbers onto the node's stack:
7 lit 2 lit (lit pushes the numbers off of the x86 arrayForth stack and onto the node's stack)


You show now see 7 and 2 as the last two values on the 4th line. 
Remember, the stack display is in hex and the values you are entering is in decimal.
(If you wish to enter values in Hex mode, press F1 and precede hex numbers with a zero (0).)

Now, let's add the two numbers:
r+ (the "r" distinguishes the F18 addition word from the x86 "+" word)


You should now see 9 on top of the stack.


Simple.

Now, let's try one more contrived exercise.  Let's load some data into the node's RAM:
55 0 r! (take 2 values off of the x86 stack:  55 goes into location 0)


You won't see the changed memory until you type:
?ram


So, at last, we have something working "hands on".  The example in the arrayForth user guide is great, but sometimes a good start is to just to be able to interactively talk to the chip.


 

Another GreenArrays blog

I've stumbled upon: http://greenarrays.blogspot.com

Oh, and also, look to the right of this entry (under Links) for the permanent home of my arrayForth cheat sheet (just revised today).