Graphics, etc. within SwiftForth

Although I have had SwiftForth for several years, I have not done much
programming with it.

I am now trying to port a package I wrote using a DOS Forth (HS/Forth) into
a Windows environment.

The software controlled operation of and data acquisition from a flow
cytometer/cell sorter. It followed what I believe to be well established
philosophical principles of Forth, in that it built up a hierarchy of
commands which, at the highest level, enabled users of the instrument,
mostly biomedical types with no training in programming, to put together
programs that would run their experiments and save and display the
necessary graphic and alphanumeric data. In order to make this work, the
Forth system had to be kept open; a licensed copy of HS/Forth was included
with each package of my software.

 From looking at numerous Windows programming books, on the one hand, and
the SwiftForth manual, on the other, I get the impression that it may be
somewhat easier to generate windows in which data are displayed from
SwiftForth than it is to write a full-blown stand-alone Windows
application; I emphatically don't want to write a stand-alone application,
anyway, because I want to preserve the extensibility that comes with
operating in the SwiftForth environment, meaning that anyone who adopts the
system will have to buy SwiftForth.

I've spent much of the past couple of years writing a new edition of a flow
cytometry textbook, which left me very little time for programming (or much
of anything else); however, once I got that albatross off my neck, I had
occasion to visit former colleagues who have been running a flow cytometer
they built from my plans with their DOS Forth system for 15 years and still
love it. I don't have to tell Forth users and programmers that, once you
know what you're doing, command-driven software beats menus and mice every
time. So, I'm freshly inspired to bring the system I know and love into a
32-bit world without memory segmentation.

I'm not sure how many, if any, other SwiftForth users have tried to do
something similar to what I have just described, but I would certainly
appreciate any pointers, code examples, etc. that might be relevant. Thanks.

-Howard Shapiro

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Received on Mon Sep 29 2003 - 21:24:16 PDT