Fixed the behavior of DOES> inside a colon definition and improved VLIST. It’s very helpful to get a list of what’s inside the code field and parameter field when debugging.

Introduced this week in Creole Forth for JavaScript

1. Indexed looping
2. I, J, and K indexes
3. Tagging words as IMMEDIATE

My previous post last week introduced Creole Forth for JavaScript as a new project. As of today I’m pleased to report significant progress. It has close to 70 words and is close to its companion languages in out-of-the-box functionality. Below is a list of features that were implemented this week.

1. Colon compiler
2. IF-THEN-ELSE branching
3. BEGIN-UNTIL looping
4. Timing primitives
5. List compiler which allows a list of words to be passed as a single unit onto the stack
6. CREATE, DOES> and , (comma). DOES> doesn't work right yet inside a colon definition
7. @ and !
8. CONSTANT and VARIABLE. Since CONSTANT relies on DOES> do not use it yet in a colon definition.
9. DEFINITIONS - sets the context vocabulary to the current
10. MSGBOX - takes a value off the stack and puts it in an alert box
11. EVAL - evaluates raw JavaScript code. This is limited to alerts right now for security reason
12. VLIST - outputs the dictionary as an HTML table
13. Single and multiline comments

I originally designed Creole Forth as a Delphi component that can be dropped onto a form. Later on I created a version of it to Excel where it exists as a couple of spreadsheets combined with some VBA modules, classes, and forms. Can it be rebuilt in JavaScript? Click on the link to see my first attempt at it. So far, it’s just a bunch of primitives in a single JavaScript file with an outer and inner interpreter that can look them up and execute them.

In their Professional Excel Development, Rob Bovey, Dennis Wallentin, Stephen Bullen, and John Green discuss “dictator applications” which take control of the entire Excel environment in favor of presenting an interface where the user can essentially forget about Excel. This idea is especially useful for creating single-purpose applications which hides the underlying complexity of the task.