Captain Bob, 2026-10-07. Rulings 6 and 8 of MESH.md 8.1 (a device
identity in the block header, a returning device's old numbers, release
by moving its blocks off, holes) were given without v3's design having
been shown. MESH.md 8.7 sets v3's design beside them: a removable drive
is a person's, known by its signature; WIREBIND; it joins at the tail and
only the tail leaves; EJECT flushes to the drive and kills the user's VM.
ENGINE.md steps 7 and 8 now say that is where it is built.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Captain Bob, 2026-10-05: F18 engines digesting capsules, 12x12 then 12^3;
the next step is nodes talking and sharing the common SSD, ahead of v4 = v3
on bare metal. Rulings so far: ports are the transport and v3's message is
what is transported; some nodes have storage of their own.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
ENGINE.md 3b, the node's side of ruling A (a word's code is the node's, its
accounts the kernel's).
- dict.v4, system.v4: (WORD-DEFINED) ( xt -- ) is run when an entry is
made, (WORD-FORGOTTEN) ( w -- ) when FORGET or COLD removes entries; with
0 there no one is told, as on the hosted product
- test_host_quit.c: a kernel that keeps the list of words and is checked to
hold exactly the node's dictionary after definitions, a vocabulary, an
abandoned definition, FORGET, a refused FORGET and COLD; KERNEL-WORD
called from the prompt and from a definition
Fixed, found while writing that test: since the capsules moved from build
time to boot time (294e6946), what COLD returns to and FORGET protects was
still the nucleus alone, so COLD lost U*, U/MOD and BYE and FORGET U* was
allowed. The boot now seals the system when it has loaded it
(v4_image_seal), and hosted-check checks COLD, the capsule word after it,
the refused FORGET and BYE.
Verified: make -C v4 test passes at both widths (1283 checks in
test_host_quit.c); hosted-check passes on three ISAs; clean qemu with
STARFORTH_V4=1 on amd64, aarch64 and riscv64 passes POST, and COLD, U*
after it, FORGET U* (refused), an unserved kernel word and BYE typed at
each prompt are answered correctly (logs/20261005-193045, -193307, -193636).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Captain Bob, 2026-10-05. Withdraws the claim that the hosted v4 product
should become v3's hosted program with the node as its interpreter. The
bare-metal product is LithosAnanke with the node in the VM's place; the
hosted product is its own and need not follow it; the six builds no longer
have to print the same lines.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Ruling A recorded as design. Measured: each build has one interpreter file
(v3/src/vm.c hosted, kernel/src/vm/vm_core.c in the kernel) and the swap is
a third, answering the same functions with a node. So the hosted v4
product is v3's hosted program with the node as its interpreter, not a
separate program. Steps re-cut; two things in v3's C words that do not
carry over as they are (vm_ptr into packed bytes, direct stack fields).
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>
From the rulings of 2026-10-05 and v3's code. The kernel stays untouched;
what is replaced is the part of a v3 VM that executes FORTH. Sets out the
interface the kernel reaches a VM through (interpret this text, a
character out, asking the kernel, the stacks and dictionary, a word being
executed, an error, a tick, the dictionary hash), what a node needs for
each, what becomes of the lone-node work, seven steps, and what is open.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
