The host node starts in its ROM (entry 12), and the boot feeds it the
system's source through the console: capsules/v4/sys/map-64.f18, the
fourteen .f18 blobs and end.f18, each found, hash-checked and
signature-checked as any capsule, then EOT. The ROM assembles the system
and starts it at (IDLE); the host reads the image record
(v4_image_from_node) for what only the assembled system knows. A ROM
error is reported with its blob, line and meaning, then PARITY:FAIL.
Deleted: v4/tools/mkimage.c, capsules/v4/nucleus-64.f18, v4/capsule/*.v4,
v4/tools/v4tof18.py. The .f18 files are the source now.
- text.c speaks the rest of the ROM's language (set, here, store, start;
v4_text_value, v4_text_start), so the oracle reads the same source:
test_host_rom_nucleus compares the ROM against text.c on the .f18 files,
word for word, image record included. Host tests load the .f18 files.
- mkmap image writes v4_map_image (the map's description of the system);
hosted and the kernel link the ROM and the map instead of v4_image_64.c.
- Hera (Captain Bob's ruling, option 1): births stream the system the ROM
assembled, as assembled code; hera.4th is unchanged.
test_host_unit's host builds the system with the ROM.
- New parity lines: PARITY:V4_F18 per blob, PARITY:V4_ROM words=2049
rom_hash=0xa6c792b5821010b7 instructions=60725216.
Acceptance: amd64, aarch64, riscv64 boot to ok> with PARITY:V4_POST
tests=538 pass=538 fail=0, POST: PASSED, and PARITY:V4_SYSTEM
word_count=317 dict_hash=0xe5a57f3eb72ff94a on all three -- the same hash
as the prebuilt nucleus gave. make -C v4 test test-32 hosted-check: all
pass. Logs: logs/20261015-141648, -141938, -142350.
Startup cost under QEMU TCG, the ROM's assembly (last V4_F18 line to
V4_ROM): amd64 26.7 s of 132 s to ok>; aarch64 41.0 s of 195 s; riscv64
20.5 s of 101 s. Hosted native: +0.85 s.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
With the stacks counted and guarded (D-16) their size is a parameter of
the node. The host node, which runs the interpreter and the compiler
under the user's programme, gets 32 values and 32 return entries; a mesh
node keeps the F18's 10 and 9. Nothing else about the mechanism or any
word's definition changes.
- stack.h: V4_DATA_RING and V4_RET_RING are build parameters; the
Makefile sets them for the host-node tests.
- tests/test_host_quit.c no longer assumes a size: it fills the stacks to
whatever they are, and takes every exit with the return stack full.
- Measured on the host node now: 28 values on a line, 29 waiting between
lines, words 31 deep from the prompt.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Ruled 2026-10-04: guarded, an error shown, back to the prompt.
- capsule/forth.v4: / MOD /MOD */ */MOD M/MOD, M* and S>D join the
vocabulary. Each dividing word tests its divisor first; zero prints
v3's message ("/: Division by zero"), ends an open definition, prints
ERROR and returns to the prompt from however deep.
- SM/REM here has UM/MOD written into it and keeps its signs in memory,
and */MOD has M* written in, so that division can be used inside words
that other words call: / from four words deep, */MOD from three.
- forth.v4 now loads after quit.v4, which the guard leaves through.
- tests: v3 transcripts for each message; /MOD, /, MOD and */MOD against
C on every pair of edge values.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Layer 5 of the compiler capsule. The host node is now started at QUIT and
left running: it prompts, reads a line from its console with QUERY,
interprets it, says " ok" or " ERROR", and goes round again.
- capsule/quit.v4: QUIT and ABORT (FORTH-79), ABORT" and (ABORT") as v3 has
them, ." and (.") (FORTH-79). Text is compiled as a counted string after
the call; the run-time word returns to the cell after it.
- INTERPRET prints v3's messages before abandoning a line:
UNKNOWN WORD: 'xxx' and xxx: compile-only.
- core.v4: CR SPACE COUNT TYPE, as DECOMPOSITION.md gives them.
- input.v4: WORD split so that (PARSE) can take text without skipping
leading delimiters (." " is an empty string); EXPECT keeps its place in
memory, so six values may wait on the stack while a line is typed.
- tests/test_host_quit.c: the node is fed characters and its output read;
16 sessions are transcripts of the v3 binary.
QUIT stops the line from inside any word and says nothing; v3's goes on
with the line and cannot be compiled. v3's compiled ABORT" crashes.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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>
The fourth layer of the compiler capsule. compile.v4: INTERPRET's
loop, STATE [ ] : ; EXIT IMMEDIATE LITERAL COMPILE [COMPILE] ' EXECUTE,
CREATE VARIABLE CONSTANT DOES>, and IF ELSE THEN BEGIN UNTIL AGAIN
WHILE REPEAT DO ?DO LOOP +LOOP on a control-flow stack in memory.
forth.v4: the first words of the vocabulary, the in-line ones.
FORTH source now goes in and running code comes out. 49 programmes
were run through the v3 binary and through this; every result agrees,
bar COMPILE, which v3 cannot run. The code laid down for each control
structure is word for word the expansion DECOMPOSITION.md gives.
A line may have six values on the stack while it is interpreted, and
words called from the interpreter may nest eight deep.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
