I came upon
https://github.com/uho/docker-forth

with a plethora of Forths.
[If you are interested in ciforth, you could have the latest
release from github..ciforth ]

docker tells you not what it is supposed to do, it list a litany
of advantages. You can cash in ... only if you are willing to install
the docker gui and experiment with it.

I think of an application xfig. You pass an image and xfig turns it
in a jigsaw puzzle. I can imagine that it is an advatage that it works
the same on apple or ms. I'm quite sure that you have totally different
version too.

What can be the advantage of having that for Forths systems?
The only remarkable about ciforth was that the versions are
years behind.

Groetjes Albert
--
Temu exploits Christians: (Disclaimer, only 10 apostles)
Last Supper Acrylic Suncatcher - 15Cm Round Stained Glass- Style Wall
Art For Home, Office And Garden Decor - Perfect For Windows, Bars,
And Gifts For Friends Family And Colleagues.

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On Mon, 16 Jun 2025 12:19:51 +0000, albert@spenarnc.xs4all.nl wrote:

I came upon
https://github.com/uho/docker-forth

with a plethora of Forths.
[If you are interested in ciforth, you could have the latest
release from github..ciforth ]

docker tells you not what it is supposed to do, it list a litany
of advantages. You can cash in ... only if you are willing to install
the docker gui and experiment with it.

I think of an application xfig. You pass an image and xfig turns it
in a jigsaw puzzle. I can imagine that it is an advatage that it works
the same on apple or ms. I'm quite sure that you have totally different version too.

What can be the advantage of having that for Forths systems?
The only remarkable about ciforth was that the versions are
years behind.

Given it's installed, configured correctly, and one remembers how to use
the Docker interface, it is possible to immediately load and run a
SwiftForth, VFX, or iForth image out of the box. It does not matter
what the version of the OS is, as that is one of the layers in the
docker.

IIRC, my colleagues were constantly busy rebuilding Dockers because
the Python libraries and OS bugfixes could/were not allowed to be
ignored :-)

-marcel

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We should be fundamentally grateful to Ulrich Hoffman
for compiling this collection and publishing it on github.
Even if I personally don't use Docker, I am happy about
Ulrich's commitment.

--

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albert@spenarnc.xs4all.nl writes:

Sketch me a use case.

1) You want to check whether a program runs on a number of Forths.

2) You want to check which of several Forth systems have a certain
feature.

3) You want to compare how different Forth systems perform on the same
program. And maybe you want to do that on several machines.

One problem with use case 3 is that on an Ivy Bridge I have seen
Gforth's FFT benchmark run significantly (IIRC 3x) slower in docker or
snap (which is based on the same technology) than when running it as a
normal process. We have not seen this on newer processors, but the
fact that I am worried because I don't understand where this slowdown
comes from; from what I know about the technology behind docker and
snap, I might expect slowdowns for system-call-heavy benchmarks, but
fft is not one of those.

- anton
--
M. Anton Ertl http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/anton/home.html
comp.lang.forth FAQs: http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/forth/faq/toc.html
New standard: https://forth-standard.org/
EuroForth 2023 proceedings: http://www.euroforth.org/ef23/papers/
EuroForth 2024 proceedings: http://www.euroforth.org/ef24/papers/

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On Mon, 16 Jun 2025 17:27:08 +0000, albert@spenarnc.xs4all.nl wrote:

I respect Ullrich, so that make me ask the question what is the
use of it.

Sketch me a use case.

It gives two in the README ?

A very convenient collection for somebody wanting to check
compatibility of, or benchmark, Forth code. Archeologists
will appreciate it too, two thousand years in the future.

-marcel

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In article <5752fed4af5334e8399df6dc61006e1f@www.novabbs.com>,
minforth <minforth@gmx.net> wrote:

We should be fundamentally grateful to Ulrich Hoffman
for compiling this collection and publishing it on github.
Even if I personally don't use Docker, I am happy about
Ulrich's commitment.

I respect Ullrich, so that make me ask the question what is the
use of it.

Sketch me a use case.

Groetjes Albert
--
Temu exploits Christians: (Disclaimer, only 10 apostles)
Last Supper Acrylic Suncatcher - 15Cm Round Stained Glass- Style Wall
Art For Home, Office And Garden Decor - Perfect For Windows, Bars,
And Gifts For Friends Family And Colleagues.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

In article <nnd$183177d6$36b3681c@f0aabdece3e0eb21>,
<albert@spenarnc.xs4all.nl> wrote:

I came upon
https://github.com/uho/docker-forth

with a plethora of Forths.
[If you are interested in ciforth, you could have the latest
release from github..ciforth ]

docker tells you not what it is supposed to do, it list a litany
of advantages. You can cash in ... only if you are willing to install
the docker gui and experiment with it.

I think of an application xfig. You pass an image and xfig turns it
in a jigsaw puzzle. I can imagine that it is an advatage that it works
the same on apple or ms. I'm quite sure that you have totally different >version too.

What can be the advantage of having that for Forths systems?
The only remarkable about ciforth was that the versions are
years behind.

Then (almost convinced...)

I tried installing docker.
It was already installed.

~: docker
docker: command not found
~: man docker
No manual entry for docker
~: info docker
info: No menu item 'docker' in node '(dir)Top'

Groetjes Albert
--
Temu exploits Christians: (Disclaimer, only 10 apostles)
Last Supper Acrylic Suncatcher - 15Cm Round Stained Glass- Style Wall
Art For Home, Office And Garden Decor - Perfect For Windows, Bars,
And Gifts For Friends Family And Colleagues.

--
Temu exploits Christians: (Disclaimer, only 10 apostles)
Last Supper Acrylic Suncatcher - 15Cm Round Stained Glass- Style Wall
Art For Home, Office And Garden Decor - Perfect For Windows, Bars,
And Gifts For Friends Family And Colleagues.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On Mon, 16 Jun 2025 20:48:37 +0000, LIT wrote:

I see its use rather limited - and a whole thing
rather as a kind of novelty - because IMHO compatibility
of Forth code isn't as important as its efficiency.
If the code can be made more efficient by any
non-standard approach, then 'goodbye compatibility',
and the user of some other Forth system if free
to modify the code on his own.

Actually, your view is quite non-standard. I don't know
any Forth users that complain that their system is
inefficient, even if it is token-threaded Fig-Forth on
a ZX80 with cassette-tape. (But then I also do not know
many (>3) Forth users that demand compatibility.)

When I was just starting to use Forth, I found
many magazine articles that discussed squeezing out
the odd cycle by modifying the inner interpreter, and
remember being mighty impressed by that.
However, after some spying around in the sources for
a while I started to wonder if they couldn't see the
forest for the trees.

My current opinion is that these authors are/were
neither interested in efficiency nor in compatibility.

-marcel

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In article <2025Jun16.194019@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at>,
Anton Ertl <anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at> wrote:

albert@spenarnc.xs4all.nl writes:

Sketch me a use case.

1) You want to check whether a program runs on a number of Forths.

Useful in academic settings.

No wonder I had a blind spot.
In my experience the OS is given, in exceptional case you have a
say in the compiler, then the program is created to work using the
compiler.

- anton

Groetjes Albert
--
Temu exploits Christians: (Disclaimer, only 10 apostles)
Last Supper Acrylic Suncatcher - 15Cm Round Stained Glass- Style Wall
Art For Home, Office And Garden Decor - Perfect For Windows, Bars,
And Gifts For Friends Family And Colleagues.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Wed, 18 Jun 2025 19:28:03 +0000, LIT wrote:

[..]

When I was just starting to use Forth, I found
many magazine articles that discussed squeezing out
the odd cycle by modifying the inner interpreter, and
remember being mighty impressed by that.
However, after some spying around in the sources for
a while I started to wonder if they couldn't see the
forest for the trees.

[..]

Could you, please, give any example of such
article (if it's available on any WWW page)?

Start here, Brian Woodroffe's 6809 'Forth computer' series: https://archive.org/details/Forth-Computer-Wireless-World-1983/mode/2up

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On Thu, 19 Jun 2025 2:36:56 +0000, dxf wrote:

[..] I've never regretted my choice of DTC for
a 16-bit forth. So it was with some surprise to discover you considered
my choice of timestamp parser 'a joke'. I was left to wonder by what criteria.

Because of using 5 roll.

-marcel

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No idea about Forth32, but perhaps you need to boot your
DOS using a memory extender, f.ex.
https://www.japheth.de/HX.html

--

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In article <5b871bb3d8bc9fc9ba75933f1b5e2580@www.novabbs.com>,
LIT <zbigniew2011@gmail.com> wrote:

On Mon, 16 Jun 2025 12:19:51 +0000, albert@spenarnc.xs4all.nl wrote:

I came upon
https://github.com/uho/docker-forth

with a plethora of Forths.
[If you are interested in ciforth, you could have the latest
release from github..ciforth ]

I wanted to give a try to forth32.com (binary
from ms2d148.zip archive) but it doesn't work.
Tried it under FreeDOS, MS-DOS 6.22 and DOSEMU
with FreeDOS, on two different machines.
It just shows the blinking screen and hangs
the whole system.

I realised that you run one of my programs, fetched from

https://home.hccnet.nl/a.w.m.van.der.horst/figforth.html

You post to the world and you expect every Chinese to
understand what you are talking about?
It is better that you provide context, and also sign your
messages, if need be with a pseudonum.

Maybe it does require some special configuration, anything?

How would you expect a 32 bit Forth to work under MSDOS?
Of course it needs a special configuration.
This is explained in README.TXT. How could you have guessed?

Groetjes Albert
--
The Chinese government is satisfied with its military superiority over USA.
The next 5 year plan has as primary goal to advance life expectancy
over 80 years, like Western Europe.

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In article <3b926bd8baed1eddde7f2cd0feecf0a2@www.novabbs.com>,
LIT <zbigniew2011@gmail.com> wrote:

I realised that you run one of my programs, fetched from

https://home.hccnet.nl/a.w.m.van.der.horst/figforth.html

You post to the world and you expect every Chinese to
understand what you are talking about?

No, I post to the thread and I expect its creator _maybe_
will understand that. But maybe not, from what I see.

It is better that you provide context, and also sign your
messages, if need be with a pseudonum.

Do you really believe, that if someone in the
Internet uses the name 'John Doe' - or, say,
'Paul Johnson' - then really his name is John Doe
(or Paul Johnson)? Because it looks more 'human-like'?

I never make any assumptions like that.

That is not the question. I want to associate all your posts
together, and possibly put you in my kill file.

comp lang forth is a serious bunch. Do you really think that
professor Anton Ertl is not real? And that his webpage at
Technische Universitaet Wien is some sort of fake?

Most of us using real names.

Maybe it does require some special configuration, anything?

How would you expect a 32 bit Forth to work under MSDOS?
Of course it needs a special configuration.
This is explained in README.TXT. How could you have guessed?

Well in README.TXT there is just 'pointer'
to quite basic config.sys recommended, like this:

device=himem.sys
DOS=HIGH

Of course my config-s use that all the time
(among other settings). Do you mean some other
settings may interfere? The abobe seems not
to be enough - that's why I posted my question.

Anyway I tried it again using such spartan
config.sys - and with no autoexec.bat at all
- and it's still not going to work.
DOS 6.22, 386SX 25 Mhz

README.TXT:
"For 32 bits Forth under MS-DOS adding config.sys is required."
Required? That is not a "pointer".

This is how your post should look like:
"
I have tried to run your wonderful program xx from your
wonderful website https:yy.
I successfully unpacked it and now I try to run it.
I diligently read the README.TXT
and accordingly I did everything it said.
Unfortunately it didn't work out.
INSERT
<Copy of command line dialog >

I'm at Witt's end. Please help me.

Regards, figForthlover.
"

Groetjes Albert
--
The Chinese government is satisfied with its military superiority over USA.
The next 5 year plan has as primary goal to advance life expectancy
over 80 years, like Western Europe.

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