10.1, and some new stuff

10.1 is out. Nothing major, but it has some cleanups and bugfixes. It's worth switching to IMO.

Beyond that, 10.2 is being worked on. The development branches (now with live snapshots) has a .NET implementation of the VM, reduced memory requirements, new tools to shrink a saved image, and the start of a debugging tool (already capable of decompiling most compiled code). In the optional modules, I've started work on extending the compiler to generate smaller, faster code.

does>

A few days ago, someone in the IRC channel asked about implementing does>
The code below provides an implementation, though it does require my extensions
package to be loaded first.

{{
  : reclass last @ d->class ! ;
  : .does compiler @ -1 =if swap literal, compile pop drop ;; then drop ;
---reveal---
  macro: does>
    1 , here 0 ,         ( compile address of code after does> [will be patched] )
    ['] reclass compile  ( compile a call to reclass, which assigns the code     )
                         ( after does> as the class handler for the word.        )
    ['] ;; execute       ( compile an exit, so no code following does> will be   )
                         ( executed when the create/does> sequence is run.       )
    here swap !          ( Patch the address from the 1 , here 0 , line to the   )
                         ( actual start of the code for the does> action.        )
    here literal,        ( Compile the address following does> as a literal so   )
                         ( it can be used by the .does class.                    )
    ['] .does compile    ( And finally, compile a call to the .does class, which )
                         ( will take care of compile-time and interpret-time bits)
  ;
}}

Back on IRC

After a long break from IRC due to connectivity problems, I will now be back on a regular basis.

Even better, I now have an irc-via-email client, which means that I am now able to monitor the #retro channel continually throughout the day, so if you have questions, I'll be able to respond far more quickly.

Misc. Updates and an introduction to Motu

10.0 (Stable) has been out for a while now, and I'm nearing completion on 10.0.1 (documentation updates to cover missing words, a fixed version of ' and movement of a few state variables to specific places at the start of the image).

In addition, I've been working on reviving an app I first created back in the Retro 7 days. The current incarnation of this is Motu, a notepad with a Retro system built in. I used to use it to keep notes and bits of code I was working on together.

Motu is implemented as a client-side web app, storing data in a cookie, and allowing trial and debugging of code. I've tested it in Safari, FireFox, and Chrome. (It will *not* work in IE). Chrome users need to start Chrome with the --enable-file-cookies flag for this to work.

Motu uses a 10.0.1 (development) image, and needs access to the state variables I mentioned earlier (it uses them to allow resetting the image to a default state without a restart). 

You can get a copy of Motu from the git repository:

git clone git://github.com/crcx/motu

GIT repository open (at last)

I've still had problems with BerliOS, so I setup a repository at github.com

To checkout a copy:

git clone git://github.com/crcx/retro10

This is up to date with my latest source, so anyone with patches pending should check them against this and then send them in.

For inclusion in the 10.0-stable release, I'll be needing the code/patches by Dec. 31st. (The release should be finished and made public by January 5, 2009)

Nearly there

I'm almost done cleaning up the source tree for the 10.0-stable release.

It'll include: C implementations (mine and Mat's) for console and framebuffer, javascript vm, Toka, Retro source, and docs.

The library will be made into a second download.

Binaries will be provided for various systems. If you have requests please let me know so I can obtain the relevant systems for building.

Getting closer to a stable release

I'm finally planning to do a stable release (hopefully in late December or early January) for the 10th generation of Retro.

It's almost ready. The core language is solid, and will see few if any changes. The library still needs works, but it's getting closer. The documentation is a bit light, but has been well received by those who have read it.

A big step forward: as of today a separate image file is no longer needed to get started with Retro. The VM will still try to load a retroImage (or another file, if specified on the command line), but if one can't be found, it'll initialize the stable image from an internal function. If you use the internal image and save your session, a new separate retroImage will be created.

For those wanting to try it out, grab a copy from http://rx-core.org/retro-10.tar.gz and run 'make vm'.

Another update: I'm working on setting up a code repository at Berlios, hopefully this will be ready later this week. This repo will be open to all contributors, so keep an eye out for the announcement when it's ready.