Re: Forth for Mac OS X Leopard (Intel) - what are the options?

On Apr 3, 6:19 pm, billc...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I am interested in having a look at Forth but haven't been able to
> find a Forth implementation that builds on an Intel Mac running
> Leopard. I saw this
thread:http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.forth/browse_frm/thread/6e4f...
>
> However, it is focused on PPC Macs. I tried building both the CVS and
> the version 0.6.2 tar ball versions of GForth without success. I
> encountered a number of build errors; however, even if I was able to
> get around those build errors, it appears that I need a previous
> binary GForth on my machine in order to bootstrap the final portion of
> the build.

Agreed that the gforth build process is rather arcane.

The quickest way to get get this support is to donate an Intel Mac
Mini to Berndt (bigForth and gforth). Anton and Berndt have both said
they just need availablity to a Mac to get gforth and bigForth ported.

Email them your pledge. They could get one when it reaches EURO 600. I'll
pledge EURO 50 for starters.

> So, a number of questions:
>
> 1. Has anyone been able to get GForth built on an Intel Mac running
> Leopard? If so, could you please list what work-arounds you had to do
> to get it to build.

First, you need to disable FFI support. In MacPorts on 10.4, gforth
0.6.2 will build fine without the ffcall library available, but bombs
out with ffcall installed. The latest 0.6.9 from CVS will build and
run, but then bombs out when attempting to invoke a word defined via
FFI. I have sent error logs for both cases to Anton Ertl.

> 2. Is there a different Forth that would be a better choice for
> someone on an Intel Mac running Leopard? I tried a lot of different
> google combinations but didn't find anything that specifically
> indicated that it had been successfully built on an Intel Mac running
> Leopard. Ideally, I don't want to have to install a macports or fink
> Forth; however, if there aren't any other options and someone has
> tried a macports/fink Forth and knows that it will work (I've
> installed and uninstalled macports and fink on my Intel Mac as I've
> had various problems with them under Leopard), then I'm willing to
> give it a try if there isn't a better alternative available.

I think both Power MacForth and Mops (and ppc gforth) run fine under
Rosetta PPC emulation. The slowdown is negligible.

I personally use MacPorts gforth 0.6.2 w/o ffcall on an Intel MacBook
Pro running 10.4.

Ian

> Again, I am a Forth noob, so feel free to point me to any FAQ or
> document that I may have missed.
>
> Thanks,
> Bill Clementson