B2F readme (b2fv.lp)

This B2F is for VfxForth. fsave and others are for Windows
programs, they are not implemented in B2FV.FTH.

B2F is first written for PET4TH (B2F.PET), to aid BASIC
programmers learn Forth. Some words are added to ANS Forth 94
so a new Forth user does not have to remember which word is
available which word is not. These words are in B2F layer. B2F
also has some BASIC features.

A test program is written, B2FTEST.B2F. This should run on
every Forth which has B2F layer.

Then B2F is ported to ANS Forth 94 (B2F.ANS). From here it is
customized to other Forth, including VfxForth (B2FV.FTH). B2F
also acts like a standard. And the B2F source code can be a
help to switch to a new Forth system quickly.

The VfxForth floating-point number is 80 bits or 10 bytes.
The integer is 32 bits.

B2F has fast and maximum precision floating point, string and
single precision integer. Prefix/sufix f for fast and maximum
precision floating-point, s for string and i for single
integer.

With the help of represent, I can write float>string which is
floating-point to string conversion routine. B2F will make a
Forth system suitable for general purpose application. The
output of float>string is formatted for easier reading.
: f. float>string type space ;
: f? f@ f. ;

This float>string routine is (sort of) copyrighted so that it
will not become GPL, but everyone is free to use, modify and
copy. This policy enables the routine to be used in a
commercial system.

VfxForth s+ concatenation of two counted strings is changed to
new s+ append string to a string variable.

VfxForth s= comparison of same length string is changed to new
s= string comparison.

B2FV.FTH assume ndp387.fth in the \progra~1\vfxeval\lib. This
is the initialization routine:
include \progra~1\vfxeval\lib\ndp387
18 set-precision
: pi
    %pi ;
: .id
    .name ;
char . dp-char !

How to use:
( run VfxForth )
include b2fv

How to test:
( run VfxForth )
include b2fv
fload b2ftest.b2f

Do not use b2f013b.b2f, b2f016.b2f since these are not Windows
programs.

Petrus Prawirodidjojo <petrusp_id@yahoo.com>