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         Lesson 1 Part 8.0  F-PC 3.5 Tutorial by Jack Brown   
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                        Compiler Turn On 
                      

We continue with our investigation of the words "  [  " and "  ]  ".
If you are curious VIEW the words " : " and " ; " .  Remember that :
means " begin definition " and you will find that its definition
contains the word " ] " which turns the compiler on.  Similarly the word
" ; " means end of current word definitions and it will contain the word
" [ " to turn the compiler off again.  We will have a complete
discussion of the application of " [ " and " ] " in a later lesson.

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                     New ways to start F-PC.  
                   

When you type  F at the dos command line prompt  A:\> to start F-PC you
can if you wish use two command line parameters as follows.

C:\FPC>F <filename> <line of Forth to execute>   <enter>

Both of these command line parameters are optional.  The file name is
specified if you want to have F-PC come to life with a *.SEQ file
already open.  To edit a file which is already open you can use the
short cut call to the EDitor.  The short quick call is just

ED <enter>

Lets start F-PC with our file BOARD1.SEQ specified on the command line.

C:\FPC>F BOARD1.SEQ <enter>

When F-PC comes to life you will notice that the banner at the top of
the screen has the current open file listed  C:WORK\BOARD1.SEQ.  The last
line of the welcome screen also lists the current file and its size!

        Current File = C:\WORK\BOARD1.SEQ of 512 bytes

To edit the currently open file just type:

ED <enter>   <--- do this now!

You will move instantly to the checker board source file.

Press Shift F10 to return instantly to Forth with changes saved.

Press <ALT> F10 to return instantly to Forth with changes discarded.

You can also activate the editor by pressing  <ESC> and selecting the
FILE menu using the right/left arrow keys and then using the up/down
arrow keys to select the options.  Try  <ALT>  E  for an even faster
way to activate the editor with the current open file.

You could also start F-PC , open a file , and begin editing the file
directly from the DOS A:\> prompt.  Leave Forth and try this:

C:\FPC>F BOARD1.SEQ ED <enter>

If you don't want to start F-PC with a file open but you still want to
specify a line of Forth to be executed then you must replace the file
name specification with a " - "  <---- that's a dash or minus sign.

For example to start F-PC and get the HELP information screen directly
you would type:

C:\FPC>F - HELP <enter>    <---  try this too!!

You could even start F-PC, make a definition,  execute it , and leave
Forth , all from the dos command line prompt.  Try this now:

C:\FPC>F - : TEST 10 0 DO I . LOOP ; TEST BYE <enter> and you will see:
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Leaving..
C:\FPC>

You can also open a file while in Forth by using the OPEN command.
Start Forth again with no command line parameters and at Forth's
" ok " prompt type

OPEN BOARD1.SEQ <enter>

You can now directly edit the file with the command

ED <enter>  or <ALT>  E

You can still use the command ESC and the FILE menu to choose a file
from the directory.

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  Please move to Lesson 1 Part 9.0  

