Welcome to Retro Native Forth, Release 7
=========================================================================
RetroForth 7, the latest implementation of RetroForth from the members
of the Retro Project is the best ever. Many changes and simplifications
have taken place since RetroForth 6.

* Cleaner source code
  The code is now more consistant in layout and uses more traditional
  Forth register names and primitives in both the Forth and assembly
  parts of the source code.
* Improved Linux support
  A richer set of drivers, bug fixes, and more round out the irritants
  in the earlier Linux ports. Text, SVGALIB, and SDL are fully supported
  and behave identically to the Native version. 
* Standalone Compiler
  When you've finished writing and testing your application, use the all
  new compiler to generate a Linux executable for your application. 
* Call Tables
  Used extensivly in the Retro Operating System, call tables provide a
  layer of abstraction for your Forth applications. If you are working
  on the assembly parts of RetroForth, you never need to know the exact
  name of the routine you want. Call tables are one of the key pieces
  that make RetroForth 7 so usable.

With all these features, and many more in the works, RetroForth 7
promises to be one of the most useful Forth systems ever implemented for
Linux.
=========================================================================
.log
6/26/2003
I started the project yesterday, coding a minimal skeleton. Today I'm
extending it and working to make it generate working programs.

Right now this will generate valid assembly, compile it, and link it.
There are problems: it can't run the outputted code. It always
segfaults, so I need to work out why, then fix it. I copied a few
primitives from Retro6-linux over. Even without them it segfaults. I'll
have to keep working to find out why.

>> The segfaults occur when values are PUSH'd to the stack. I'd like to
>> use the hardware stack (via the PUSH/POP instructions) if possible.
>> I'll have to look into why this occurs.

I'm now adding the ability to have comments (not on the same line as
code!)

>> Finished. This makes it easier to document the Forth code.

The primitives aren't quite working yet either... I'll have to fix the
stack bugs before I can correct them.


7/5/2003
Moved the entire SED part of the code into a separate file
Now store temporary files in /tmp, remove them when done
Decimal numbers no longer require prefixing
Reverted to RF6-style primitives (using macros, etc)
Will be adding call tables and easily changable register usage soon


7/12/2003
Fixed bug in prefixing code, extended documentation.
