DSCF

.co.uK

+ PC32 Tutorials

Colors in PC32

PC32 being a variant of ColorForth uses color to display extra encoded information, this serves the purpose of further reducing the amount of syntax on any given program.

These colors or tags can be split into two Contexts each with its own function:

Compile
This context builds the program by transforming the source code into machine code that will be executed during runtime, it will search words to do calls, references and put numbers on the stack.
Immediate
Words in this context will be evaluated during compile time, using this you can manipulate what gets compiled and how. There are words such as ; for next that compile special instructions and are usually used as immediate words

There are a total of 16 colors available for use, separated into two Contexts of 8 colors:

Compile Context:

Define	Defines a point in code where a word begins
Call	Compiles a call to word address
Number	Complies a number
Reference	Compiles a number pointing to the starting code address of the word
Source Data	Compiles a number pointing to the source code address of the word, used for strings and permanent variables
Assembler	Compiles a number directly, used for machine code compilation in sizes of 1, 2, 4 bytes depending on the size of the number
Editor	Used to control the behavior of the editor, the word marked as blue will be searched in the dictionary if found it will be executed while rendering the screen otherwise it'll be ignored
User1	Treated as a comment, can used in custom parsers by the user

Immediate Context:

Jump	Compiles a jump to the word, used as tail recursion or as a looping mechanism
Imm Call	Executes word while compiling
Imm Number	Puts number on Top of Stack(TOS) while compiling. Marked with an accent to differentiate from compile
Imm Reference	Puts address of word on TOS while compiling
Imm Source Data	Puts address of source on TOS while compiling. Marked with an accent to differentiate from compile
Macro	Inlines the word until a ; is found, used to speed up execution by avoiding flushing the pipeline in a call
Comment	Comments are ignored and automatically skipped
User2/Background	A comment that displays as background color making it invisible, can be used for formatting and in custom parsers by the users