Bootstrap post-collapse technology
Collapse OS is a Forth operating system and a collection of tools and documentation with a single purpose: preserve the ability to program micro- controllers through civilizational collapse.
It it designed to:
- Run on minimal and improvised machines.
- Interface through improvised means (serial, keyboard, display).
- Edit text files.
- Compile assembler source files for a wide range of MCUs and CPUs.
- Read and write from a wide range of storage devices.
- Assemble itself and deploy to another machine.
Additionally, the goal of this project is to be as self-contained as possible. With a copy of this project, a capable and creative person should be able to manage to build and install Collapse OS without external resources (i.e. internet) on a machine of her design, built from scavenged parts with low-tech tools.
Documentation is in text files in doc/. Begin with intro.txt.
Collapse OS can run on any POSIX platform and builds easily.
See cvm/README for instructions.
- blk.fs: Cross-arch Collapse OS filesystem's content. See below.
- cvm: A C implementation of Collapse OS, allowing it to run natively on any POSIX platform.
- doc: Documentation. Begin with intro.txt.
- arch: collection of makefiles that assemble Collapse OS on different machines. Also contains arch-specific blk.fs files. See below.
- tools: Tools for working with Collapse OS from "modern" environments. For example, tools for facilitating data upload to a Collapse OS machine through a serial port.
- emul: Tools for running Collapse OS in an emulated environment.
There are multiple "blk.fs" files. One at the root of the Collapse OS package and then one in each /arch subdirectory.
These are big text files which, collectively, contain the "real deal", that is, the contents of Collapse OS' filesystem. That filesystem contains everything that a post-collapse computer would manage, that is, all Forth and assembler source code for the tools it needs to fulfill its goals.
The root blk.fs file is for cross-arch contents. blk.fs files in /arch/* are for arch-specific contents. See doc/blk.txt for details.
The Collapse OS filesystem is a simple sequence of 1024 bytes blocks. That is
not very workable in the text editor of a modern system. blk.fs represents an
"unpacked" view of that block system. Each block (16 lines max per block, 64
chars max per line) begins with a marker indicating the block number of the
contents that follow.
Blocks must be in ascending order.
That file can be "packed" to a real blkfs with /tools/blkpack. A real blkfs
can be "unpacked" to its text file form with /tools/blkunpack.
Emulation used to be a central tool to developing new ports for Collapse OS. On a POSIX platform, I would begin by creating an emulator for my target machine, fool around, then when I thought I had something good, test on real hardware for adjustments.
With the 6809 port, I wanted to take dogfooding more seriously and began developing ports from Collapse OS itself on vintage machines. This allows me to see opportunities for usability improvements and detect bugs much better than when using a POSIX platform.
Because of that, the "emul" folder is no longer improved.