Installing the Sun Forth System


The tape contains 3 directories:  forth/  cforth/   diagnostics/

Each of these contains a number of other files and directories.
The total size is about 3 MBytes.

Pick a place to put the files.  I will subsequently refer to the
place you picked as <wherever>.

% cd <wherever>
% tar x                         # for a 1/2" tape
    OR
% tar xfb /dev/rst0 126		# for a 1/4" cartridge tape


		Finding the Documentation

A guide to the documentation is in <wherever>/forth/README


		Setting up the Forth system under Unix

There are 3 things that are needed to run Forth:

	forth		The executable binary file
	files.exe	The initial Forth dictionary image
	lib/		A directory containing library routines

These live in:

	<wherever>/forth/forth
	<wherever>/forth/files.exe
	<wherever>/forth/lib/

I recommend that you make the following symbolic links:

	% ln -s <wherever>/forth/forth /usr/local/forth
	% ln -s <wherever>/forth/lib   /usr/local/lib/forth/

The intention is to make these things routinely accessible to most people;
if /usr/local/... is inappropriate for your site, choose some other place.


		Setting up your Environment

Forth uses the environment variable FPATH to determine which directories
to search when loading files.  I suggest that you add a line similar to
this to your .login file:

	setenv FPATH .:$HOME/lib/forth:/usr/local/lib/forth

This instructs Forth to search first the current directory, then the
private Forth library directory, then the public Forth library directory.


		Running Forth

Now you can run Forth by typing:

	% forth

You should see a Forth prompt:

	ok

Execute Forth commands in the usual way (except use lower case).
Files can be loaded with:

	ok  load filename

where `filename' is the pathname of the file to load.  If you want the
search path (FPATH) to apply, use `requires' instead of `load'.  These
files are ordinary Unix files, with variable-length newline-terminated
lines, editable with vi or Emacs or whatever.  If you want to convert
some Forth screens to real files, look at
<whatever>/forth/lib/blockstofiles.f .

To get out, type

	ok  bye


		Read the documentation for more tips.



		One more thing

If you are an emacs user, you are in for a real treat.  Forth contains
a built-in Emacs-subset line editor, with an interactive history mechanism
for command lines.  To use it, after you've started up forth, type:

	ok  lineedit

Now just pretend you're in Emacs (and read the documentation to find
out what works and what doesn't).  The history mechanism is accessed with
^N and ^P.  Try it and see.