FORTH for RSX/RT-11

[Eric N]

FIG-Forth was released in 1979 for RSX-11 and RT-11 systems.  You can download the original releases here, but I found two issues when I compiled this on my PiDP RSX-11 system, so the attached .zip archive contains my patches to get FIG-Forth up and running on your RSX-11 and RT-11 systems.

Fixed Issues:

1. FIG-FORTH's dictionary intentionally sets the high bit on each word's last name-character as an "end of name" marker, assuming a 7-bit-only terminal simply won't display that bit.  The problem is modern terminal emulators will treat that last byte as an invalid character and render it as a "?".  You see this "?" only in odd-numbered words, not even. It's really annoying if you're trying to decipher a 1-word character.

For example, pre-patch if you do a VLIST, you see something like this:
NF?   CF?   LF?   LATEST   TRAVERSE   -DUP   SPAC?   RO?   ?   ?
?   ?   ?   ALLO?   HERE   2+   1+   PREV   US?   HL?   R#   CS?

2. Fixed a variable-record-format corruption in FORTH.DAT.  The original FORTH.DAT on the FIGFORTH.DSK RL02 image had its record format set to VARIABLE which embedded 2-byte length headers every 512 bytes.  FORTH.MAC does not account for VARIABLE record formats, so you see a "?" every 512  bytes in the FORTH.DAT screens.

How to Build

Unzip the archive and get the three files onto your PDP via ftp or something.

To Build:
1. MACRO/LIST FORTH
2. TKB FORTH,FORTH

3. You will see a FORTH.TSK file as the final result

To Run:
1. RUN FORTH

To Clean:
DEL FORTH.OBJ;*
DEL FORTH.TSK;*
DEL FORTH.LST;*

Enjoy,

ECNeilson

[Johnny Billquist]

Um? Did you start off from the V1.3 version, and not the V1.3.3 version?

Johnny

On 2026-09-07 17:49, Eric N wrote:
> FIG-Forth was released in 1979 for RSX-11 and RT-11 systems.  You can

> download the original releases here <http://www.stackosaurus.com/
> figforth.html>, but I found two issues when I compiled this on my PiDP

> RSX-11 system, so the attached .zip archive contains my patches to get
> FIG-Forth up and running on your RSX-11 and RT-11 systems.
>

> *Fixed Issues:*

> 1. FIG-FORTH's dictionary intentionally sets the high bit on each word's
> last name-character as an "end of name" marker, assuming a 7-bit-only
> terminal simply won't display that bit.  The problem is modern terminal
> emulators will treat that last byte as an invalid character and render
> it as a "?".  You see this "?" only in odd-numbered words, not even.
> It's really annoying if you're trying to decipher a 1-word character.
>
> For example, pre-patch if you do a VLIST, you see something like this:
> NF?   CF?   LF?   LATEST   TRAVERSE   -DUP   SPAC?   RO?   ?   ?
> ?   ?   ?   ALLO?   HERE   2+   1+   PREV   US?   HL?   R#   CS?
>
> 2. Fixed a variable-record-format corruption in FORTH.DAT.  The original
> FORTH.DAT on the FIGFORTH.DSK RL02 image had its record format set to
> VARIABLE which embedded 2-byte length headers every 512 bytes.
>  FORTH.MAC does not account for VARIABLE record formats, so you see a
> "?" every 512  bytes in the FORTH.DAT screens.
>

> *How to Build*

> Unzip the archive and get the three files onto your PDP via ftp or
> something.
>
> To Build:
> 1. MACRO/LIST FORTH
> 2. TKB FORTH,FORTH
> 3. You will see a FORTH.TSK file as the final result
>
> To Run:
> 1. RUN FORTH
>
> To Clean:
> DEL FORTH.OBJ;*
> DEL FORTH.TSK;*
> DEL FORTH.LST;*
>
> Enjoy,
> ECNeilson
>

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[Eric N]

I started from the 1.3.3.1 version here: http://www.stackosaurus.com/figforth-1.3.3.1/rl02_figforth-1.3.3.1.dsk.gz