Re: announcement of minimal binary boot (mb2) with indirection table forth

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hello,

Stefan Karrmann <S.Karrmann@web.de> skribis:

> My hard binay seed is a monitor, which takes octal encoded octets (aka
> bytes) as input, writes the octets in reverse order into the memory, and
> finally jumps to the new code. It's size is:
>
>   - for octal keyboard input on x86:             32 octets (!)
>   - for octal uninitialized serial input on x86: 34 octets
>   - for octal initialized serial input on x86:   41 octets
>   - for octal linux input on x86:                48 octets
>
>   - for octet keyboard input on x86:             18 octets
>     This make sense, if we use the alt numpad input method.
>
> For those, who don't regard octal encoded octets as real source code, I
> provide a second binary seed which implements a forth nucleus. I call it
> itf or indirection table forth.
> The sizes for this interpreter are much bigger than the sizes of the
> monitors but still small in comparision to a boot sector (512 octets):
>
>   - 75 octets for bios monitor on x86
>   - **__81__** octets for bios standalone on x86 (!)
>     i.e. six of them fit easily into one boot sector!
>   For easier development we have:
>   - 102 octets for linux monitor on 32 bit x86
>   - 101 octets for linux standalone on 32 bit x86
>
> The bootstrap code in forth source code is still in its development phase.
> I've compiled and tested the first colon words. The next task is a more
> normal forth interpreter and a regular dictionary.

This is truly impressive!  I’m of those who don’t regard octal-encoded
octets as “real source” :-), unless it’s short and comes with extensive
comments (which is more or less what stage0 does, IIRC).  The tiny Forth
kernel remains super small though, well done!

Thanks,
Ludo’.