HP-71 Forth/Assembler ROM fix

[rprosperi]

(11-24-2018 09:24 PM)Erwin Wrote:  Hi, a question on the experts. I have the FRAM71 kit and installed all (for me - like i described in a post of mine) necessary programs. What about those above FIX5A fixes? How to implement them with the Forth/assembler in the FRAM71?

best regards
Erwin

The fixes to the assembler only change the FORTHRAM file, so there is no need to worry about if you have the FORTH/Assembler in ROM or FRAM71.

The assembler, written in FORTH, had 'hooks' built-in to allow later patches to replace an opcode, or even much more as John Baker's 5th patch proves, into the RAM file.

If you want to implement all the changes, you simply load the patch file (" FIX5A" LOADF) into a blank FORTHRAM file, and then make that your new starting place to build your own stuff on top of.

But note a couple important things:

1. The 'revised' assembler is now invoked via " MYSOURCE" SASM, so that you can still invoke the original using " MYSOURCE" ASSEMBLE.

2. The new assembler discards some of the built-in pseudo-ops that control the assembly type (e.g. for LEX file header, keyword tables, etc.), requiring you to manually craft (the normally auto-generated content with) CON(i) N, NIBASC 'chars' or NIBHEX N pseudo-ops with the proper bytes, for the header, LEXID, etc.

So, while this does give you much more fine-tuned control, I'd suggest deferring jumping to that version until you've used the basic stuff for a while.