RdeG-H

A place to discuss general QL issues.
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ajb
ROM Dongle
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RdeG-H

Post by ajb »

When I joined the forum one of the things I said that I might do was convert a FORTH I'd written (FIF) on the Atari ST to the QL. Well, I finished it a while ago, but had a change of plan. Whereas the Atari FIF is all my own work this latest one isn't quite. I'd always enjoyed FORTH on the BBC micro and was interested in recreating it on the QL, partly as a tribute but mainly as a programming exercise. I'd wondered about the problems of getting a language more fitted to absolute addresses working on a platform which enforces relocatable code. On the Atari you're shielded from such considerations as a relocation table is attached to programs so you can happily code as if you were using absolutes. BBC FORTH was written by Richard (aka Dick) de Grandis-Harrison who QL fans will know as the author of Quill.

A nice thing about FORTH is that once you've programmed the language to a certain point you can begin to expand it using lists of pre-defined FORTH words. As I was going for the same look-and-feel and, as it's a standard technique, some of the BBC system FORTH was re-used (with suitable alteration given it's a 32 bit FORTH rather than an 8 bit one).

So, whilst most of the code is mine (all the 68000 assembler stuff plus some FORTH words), some of the embedded FORTH is Richard's. QL FIF could legally be regarded as a derived work. The original BBC copyright belonged to Acornsoft. They folded quite a while ago. Some of the games copyrights were bought by a couple of companies but no-one really seems to know where the copyright for those are, let alone that of the languages. It could conceivably have reverted back to Richard, though not even the UK Forth Interest Group (he was head honcho there for a time) could locate him a few years ago so he may no longer be alive (in which case it would be passed down along with the rest of his estate and so on).

In short, I'd be happy to release QL FIF here along with its source but, even though it's a curiosity which will never be sold, the legal aspects have been off-putting. I'm therefore interested in hearing the opinion of forum members about any such release, given the above circumstances.

I suppose I could rewrite the FORTH bits in assembler but that wouldn't really be as fitting a tribute to Richard's original work.

Anyway, I had lots of fun doing it; Qmac got quite a hammering. I still occasionally write bits of FORTH on the BBCs and my homebrew Jupiter Ace design but it's even more enjoyable using your own underlying engine.


Alan


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vanpeebles
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Re: RdeG-H

Post by vanpeebles »

This thread needs polka posting :D


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