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>
MESH.md step 3. The ports are the transport; the message is what is
transported: to, from, type, heat and TTL, ACL tag, sequence, length, then
text four characters to a word.
- quit.v4: a node with nothing to do is blocked reading "any port"; text
for it is interpreted; (FINISH) sends what it printed and then how the
text ended, and it waits again
- core.v4: EMIT keeps what is printed, (FLUSH-OUT) and (HDR) send it to the
sender on the port the message came on. EMIT still needs one free data
cell and no more; it works on the return stack and in A and B
- message.h/.c: the same format for whatever is on a port and is not a node
- boot.c: the boot is the node's console on port 1 and its kernel on port 0
- the prompt tests are a console that speaks messages
- gone: v4_line_begin, v4_line_done, v4_line_status; writing a node's input
buffer and setting its P from outside; any use of CONSOLE-TX
Verified: make -C v4 test (test_host_quit.c 1283 checks, the full-stack
figures unchanged) and make -C v4 sanitize pass; hosted-check passes on
three ISAs with POST 550 of 550; clean qemu with STARFORTH_V4=1 passes POST
and answers lines typed at each prompt on amd64, aarch64 and riscv64
(logs/20261006-110551, -111621, -111341). -110837 is an aarch64 run ended
by the test wrapper's limit while still in UEFI firmware; it shows nothing
about v4.
Not done: KEY, EXPECT and QUERY still read the console's input registers;
a message not for this node is let go (step 4).
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>
WORD, the dictionary words and the code generator run underneath
whatever the user has on the stacks, which are ten and nine deep (D-2).
Measured, they used five to seven data cells of their own, leaving a
line about three. Each now keeps what it works on in its file's
scratch cells and has at most three cells on the data stack; , calls
nothing; and the longest chains of calls are shorter.
The public words of core.v4, input.v4 and dict.v4 get dictionary
headers. NUMBER is split so the interpreter can have a flag instead of
NODE-ERROR. The host-node tests share one memory map, host_map.h.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Ruled 2026-10-04: standard words follow the standard where v3 did not.
EXPECT takes up to n characters (v3 took n-1) and does nothing for
n <= 0. QUERY takes up to 80 (v3: 1024). WORD stores the delimiter it
met, or a zero at the end of the text, after the word, and leaves >IN
just past that one delimiter (v3 skipped them all and stored a zero);
the word may be up to 255 characters (v3: 62).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The first layer of the compiler capsule, on the host node: TIB >IN SPAN
SOURCE BL EXPECT QUERY WORD ENCLOSE CONVERT NUMBER and the comment
words. The definitions are text, v4/capsule/core.v4 (the core words
they rest on) and v4/capsule/input.v4, assembled by the text assembler,
which can now read a file.
EXPECT, QUERY, WORD and ENCLOSE behave as v3's. CONVERT and NUMBER are
FORTH-79 (ruled 2026-10-04): any BASE, a double in the standard order,
and NUMBER returns a signed double or sets NODE-ERROR.
Executed at both cell widths against C and against values recorded from
the v3 binary.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
