[svfig-announce] FORTH DAY November 15 - This Saturday

Mon Nov 10 19:22:39 GMT 2008

--- SVFIG FORTH DAY  November 15, 2008 ---
PLEASE NOTE WE WILL BE STARTING AN HOUR EARLIER AND ADJOURNING AN HOUR
LATER THAN OUR USUAL SVFIG MONTHLY MEETING

Cogswell College
1175 Bordeaux Drive,  Sunnyvale, CA

*** SEE IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT SECURITY ***
*** RULES AT BOTTOM OF THIS MESSAGE ***

Main page --> <<<http://www.cogswell.edu>>>
Directions --> <<<http://www.cogswell.edu/directions2campus.html>>>

We will be in our usual room - 197 A and 197 B
Marked in red on this floor plan:
<<<http://www.forth.org/svfig/room-map.jpg>>>

  > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AGENDA
09:00  --- COFFEE AND A CHAT (may start earlier outside the front door)

09:10 --- WELCOME MESSAGE --- SVFIG President George Perry

09:15 --- RADIO DIRECTION FINDING USING A PIC FORTH PROCESSOR --- Bill
Ragsdale
Radio Direction Finding Using a PIC Forth Processor -
Bill, K6KN, will present his project, a radio direction finder for
amateur radio "bunny hunts". To generate his one-chip PIC project, he
has written a PIC Forth nucleus, interactive emulator, assembler,
loader, and application using Win32 Forth.

09:45 --- RAINBOW FORTH BECOMES A WebApp --- Brad Nelson
Brad will demonstrate a reimplementation of ColorForth as a web
application written in Javascript using Google AppEngine as a datastore.

10:15 --- Firmware Engineering Workshop - CH Ting
"eForth is a very simple Forth implementation portable to all types of
microprocessors and microcontrollers. eForth's ideal platform requires
16 KBytes of RAM/ROM memory. If both ROM and RAM memory can be mapped to
the same logical memory space, the firmware development will be greatly
simplified. I will demonstrate two platforms, an ARM7-based prototype
board from Olimex and an eP32 system implemented on a FPGA from Altera.
Substantial Forth application code has been written and verified on
these systems. This Workshop summarizes how to produce firmware with
eForth. "

10:45 --- BREAK

11:00 --- Forth 200x Standards Process - Leon Wagner
"A new standards process (known as Forth 200x) for updating the 1994 ANS
Forth standard is underway. I attended the most recent Forth 200x
meeting in Vienna in September and will give a brief report on the
current status of the updated standard.

       --- SwiftForth for Linux - Leon Wagner
"Forth Inc. ported the core of SwiftForth-Win32 to Linux last winter and
have been using it internally as well as on a few selected customer
projects. The system has been in alpha test for about 10 months and is
nearly ready to release."
(Will there be samples on CD or a link?  I certainly hope so!)

11:30 --- FORTH AS A DROP-IN SCRIPTING COMPONENT --- Joseph O'Connor
Joe will provide a brief history, its current architecture, how it's
been used in the real world, and future possible directions.  This work
is based on the Creole language, which Joe presented at the 2003 Forth
Day >>> http://www.forth.org/svfig/kk/11-2003.html

NOON --- 'QUEUING THEORY SEMINAR
Chef Ting will be catering the traditional Forth Day barbecue

13:00 --- INTRODUCTIONS, ANNOUNCEMENTS, RUMORS & GOSSIP

13:20 --- IntellaSys UPDATE
o SEAforth® Evaluation Kit 40C18 (SEK 40C18) - Dylan Smeder
o Serial Terminal Driver Demo - Charley Shattuck
o eForth and interactive Debugger (IDB) Demo - John Rible
o NEW music demo - Michael Montvelishky
o Communicating Processes and Talking Voltmeter Demo - Jeff Fox

15:40 --- BREAK

16:00 --- FIRESIDE CHAT --- Chuck Moore
Chuck will discuss the c18 Instruction Set and "Forty Years of Forth"

17:00 ---  Adjourn

BANQUET - Approximately 17:30
     Current proposed venue:
Hangen Szechuan Restaurant
134 Castro St.
Mountain View, CA
650/964-8881
Menu >>>
http://www.menuism.com/links/show/d9t1C-j9ar3B0Raby-t3N_?type=AllMenus

  > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The schedule above may be reformatted or line-justified but
please transmit verbatim or not at all.   Any font you like is
alright with me.

No Newsgroup posts or other media distribution this month please!

  > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wireless Internet access is anticipated (though not guaranteed)
at Cogswell, so bring your wifi.

> > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Check the SVFIG web site at http://www.forth.org/svfig/
for last minute changes to this schedule.
The most up-to-date meeting information is at
http://www.forth.org/svfig/next.html

Many thanks to our wonderful Webmaster, Dave Jaffe.

Preliminary agenda along with schedule updates and
discussion may frequently be found on the SVFIG email list.
To subscribe send email to geoperry_at_gmail.com

Please let us know if this isn't your preferred email address for the
SVFIG-Announce mailing list.  Thanks for your patience.

Please suggest a speaker or present at a SVFIG meeting.
Email me, Kevin Appert,  forther_at_comcast.net  (see the
return address)

Please do not attempt to reply to svfig-announce at ...

=========================================

*** IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT GETTING INTO THE MEETING ***

Cogswell  now secures its doors on weekends. There will be an
SVFIG member at the door unless he's gone to get coffee or pee
because he's had too much coffee.  He'll only be there BEFORE
the meeting to let you in so please try to get there before the start.
If you are attending an SVFIG meeting for the first time, please
bring along a printout of the agenda to identify your interest in
Forth and gain admission. If you arrive after 10:15 AM there
will be a number for you to call to alert someone of your presence
at the door. The front door will also be checked at intervals of 20
to 30 minutes to accommodate those without cellphones.

VERY IMPORTANT:
Do not under any circumstances let any stranger past the Cogswell
doors.  Those who are authorized to be inside have key-cards, except for
us, of course.
___________________________________