zeptoforth

This release replaces the old system of using SET-ORDER and SET-CURRENT (even though they still exist behind the scenes) with a new module system aimed at making building code using more complex arrangements of wordlists more user-friendly.

This patch-level release adds task parameters, escaped string literals, adds more words for manipulating blocks on the STM32F746 DISCOVERY, and fixes bugs in multitasking and fchannels.

This patch-level release adds a block editor and some block loading and listing words for the STM32F746 DISCOVERY board as well as abstracting out ANSI terminal-related words so they can be shared by both the line editor and the block editor; additionally, some bugs in the lambda words [: and ;] concerning constants are fixed as well.

This patch-level release includes a block interface for the STM32F746 DISCOVERY board, task pools, a simple (optional) line editor with Unicode support, kitchen sink "big" binaries, and a bugfix to case / of / endof / endcase with regard to the handling of constants within.

This patch-level release includes Quad SPI flash support for the STM32F746 DISCOVERY board along with a block interface to go along with it, that may be used with the STM32F746 boards (they are not included by default in the builds, in order to keep the default build binaries under 128K), along with fixing an issue with the STM32F746 build that was causing bad non-kernel-only binaries to be generated.

Release 0.14.0 adds support for the STM32F746 DISCOVERY board. Note that the issues with the STM32F746 clock have been resolved. It does not add support for external flash and SDRAM or the built-in touchscreen that are available on the STM32F746 DISCOVERY board; support for these is slated to become available at a future date.

I have not done much work lately on zeptoforth because I have been utterly stuck on a simple problem - I have a new STM32F746 DISCOVERY board I want to port it to, but I have yet to figure out how to up the MCU from its base clock rate of 16 MHz to its max clock rate of 216 MHz, which I want to do before I do any more work with it. What is also unhelpful is that I have found practically no code samples out there on how to do this; the code samples I have seen are in C and use prewritten library routines to control the clock rate rather than showing the actual register settings necessary. Yes, I know, I could just use it at 16 MHz, but why use an expensive new(ish) board if it will only run at that (considering zeptoforth already supports the older STM32L476 DISCOVERY and STM32F407 DISCOVERY boards at their maximum clocks of 48 MHz and 168 MHz respectively). (Of course the STM32F746 DISCOVERY board has other goodies like a nice-sized touchscreen and an Ethernet port, and I could always put off upping the clock to work with those, but I feel I just must up the clock before I do anything else.)

This patch-level release adds more RTOS-type functionality by adding priority inversion-resistant locks and also changing "fast" (i.e. rendezvous) channels so they properly queue multiple tasks attempting to communicate using them without any spinning taking place.

This patch-level release adds task priorities, giving zeptoforth basic RTOS capabilities, and also changes the default time slice granularity from 10 ms to 1 ms.

This release adds preemptive multitasking to zeptoforth. Note that relinquishing control of the processor manually using the word PAUSE is still possible, and is generally recommended over relying upon preemption when possible, and words such as MS, KEY, and EMIT still make use of PAUSE. Also, critical sections are made available by the words BEGIN-CRITICAL and END-CRITICAL; note that nesting critical sections is not possible at the present.