Measured, compiling a DO loop left one return entry spare under INTERPRET and a defining word called from inside another word overflowed the nine-entry return stack (D-2); the prompt loop will take one more. C@ and C! shift without a loop. The code generator shifts each opcode into the word being built, so nothing is placed by a counted shift, and the address masks come from a table. The dictionary search, the in-liner, the end of a loop and the making of a data word are each one word reached by a jump. Every kind of line now leaves at least three return entries spare while it compiles; a word run from the interpreter has six; and CREATE ... DOES> works from the prompt, from a word, and from a word that calls that. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
v4/
StarForth v4: the 32-instruction F18-derived core. The design lives in
docs/v4.0.0/JUSTIFICATION.md (why) and docs/v4.0.0/DECOMPOSITION.md
(every v3 word mapped to a v4 fate).
The first deliverable is the hosted C99 golden model (JUSTIFICATION.md §10,
step 1). It must pass POST and hold K≡1.0 with 32- and 64-bit cells on all
three host ISAs.
Acceptance (JUSTIFICATION.md §16): v4 must be equivalent to v3 at any point
in time, with the same vocabularies and behaviour, on the F18-derived engine;
and every ISA, hosted and bare metal, must still reach its ok prompt.
make -C v4 test passing is a development check, not acceptance.
What exists so far is the single node: registers, circular stacks, memory, all
32 opcodes, per-opcode and per-call-target heat, and three console
registers (CONSOLE-TX, which captures output, and CONSOLE-RX and CONSOLE-STATUS, which hand out
input a test feeds) standing in for the console node until the mesh exists. The tests load definitions
onto a node either opcode by opcode (v4/include/v4/asm.h) or as text in the notation DECOMPOSITION.md
uses (v4/include/v4/text.h). make -C v4 test builds
and runs the tests at both cell widths; make -C v4 sanitize repeats them
under ASan and UBSan. There is no compiler capsule, no POST and no K
measurement yet.