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>
ENGINE.md step 2, the carrier. Ruled 2026-10-05 (V3-PARITY.md 1i), on
DECOMPOSITION.md section 6: a write to a port blocks until the neighbour
reads.
- node: v4_node_port_attach, v4_node_port_served; a store to the port keeps
the value as the request and blocks the node
- exec: a blocked node executes nothing; served, it goes on from the opcode
after the store, in the same instruction word; a fault meanwhile abandons
the rest of the word
- compile.v4: n KERNEL-WORD name makes a word whose body writes n to the
port; its arguments and results are on the data stack
- boot: the kernel's words are made by handing the node text, and requests
are served between the node's opcodes; one no one serves is error 12
- BYE, the first kernel word: hosted it leaves the program, as hosted v3;
on the lone node it is v3's cold restart
- ENGINE.md 3a: multiuser, multitasking, preemptive and cooperative, and
what that asks of the engine
Verified: make -C v4 test passes at both widths, with tests/test_port.c;
hosted-check passes on three ISAs; clean qemu with STARFORTH_V4=1 on amd64,
aarch64 and riscv64 passes POST with the same hashes as hosted, and a
kernel word no one serves and BYE typed at each prompt are answered
(logs/20261005-185506, -185734, -190101; -185234 is an amd64 run in which
those two lines were not typed).
Not done: v3's own C functions serving a node.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
A v4 node no longer reads its own command line or prints a prompt. Its
host puts a line of text in the node's input buffer and starts it at
(LINE); the node interprets it and stops at (IDLE), leaving in
(LINE-STATUS) how it ended: completed, an error, or QUIT. The host says
" ok" or " ERROR" and prompts, as the kernel's REPL does for a v3 VM. A
line may be 1024 characters, a block, as v3's. Ruled 2026-10-05
(V3-PARITY.md 1b); design ENGINE.md 3.1.
- quit.v4: (REPL), the node's prompt loop, is gone; (LINE) (IDLE) (DONE)
- image.h/.c: v4_line_begin, v4_line_done, v4_line_status; the node is
idle at switch-on
- boot.c: v4_boot_line, the one loop the hosted binary, the kernel and the
capsule loader hand a line with; the code that took " ok" and the prompt
back out of the node's output is gone
- hosted.c, sk_v4.c: the prompt and the line editing are the host's
- test_host_quit.c: the tests are the node's host; two tests of the old
80-character prompt line now test a whole line, 1024 and 1025 characters
Verified: make -C v4 test passes at both widths; hosted-check passes on
three ISAs; clean qemu with STARFORTH_V4=1 on amd64, aarch64 and riscv64
passes POST (550 of 550) with the same hashes as hosted, and three lines
typed at each bare-metal prompt through the serial port are answered
correctly (logs/20261005-180922, -181152, -181541).
Still the lone node: kernel_main.c starts it before the fleet tables.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
One boot, v4/system/boot.c, for both products: it starts the nucleus image,
finds each capsule in the baked capsule directory, recomputes its hash,
checks its signature, gives its blocks to the node a line at a time, and
prints PARITY:V4_NUCLEUS, PARITY:V4_CAPSULE and PARITY:OK before the prompt.
A line the node does not accept ends the boot with the capsule, block and
line named. docs/v4.0.0/NUCLEUS.md.
- hosted Linux product for amd64, aarch64 and riscv64 (make -C v4 hosted);
make -C v4 hosted-check boots all three and requires identical output
- the kernel's v4 entry (STARFORTH_V4=1) calls the same boot
- capsules/v4/forth79.4th, block 6000: no definitions yet
- mkimage builds the nucleus only; no FORTH source is compiled at build time
- capsule_blocks.c: the Block-header parse, free of any VM, for every loader
Verified: make -C v4 test passes; hosted-check passes on the three ISAs with
the same hashes; the kernel compiles with STARFORTH_V4=1 on the three.
Not verified: no bare-metal boot of v4 has been run.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
