This is a transcription of my original outline for what became known as
RETRO.  It dates back to August or September 1998.  I planned on having
everything but the virtual machine done by 1999.  Yeah right :)  It's
March 2000 and I haven't done half the stuff on this list.  The goals
haven't changed much, though... I set aside a few things: encryption,
security, parallel processing, and the *-windows inspired GUI.


Forth-based OS
--------------

Startup - read kernel, protected mode
Forth interpreter
  Load block file w/ basic words
  Assembler

			Important traits
			----------------
			Fast
			Simple/efficient
			Integrated encryption
			Secure from viruses & intrusion
			Ease of use (once learned)
			Shared memory
			"Fresh start" - no old baggage

Projects
--------
1.  Boot loader
2.  Startup code (get BIOS info, enter protected mode, etc...)
3.  I/O (direct screen writes + keyboard input + disk block I/O)
4.  Basic Forth system (a few core words + disk blocks)
5.  Simple assembler to create primitive words (only a few asm instructions)
+ Cleanup, p-mode, block editor, metacompiler
--- Now development can be done within the new OS
6.  Flest out Forth
7.  Filesystem (using Forth block routines)(?)  Add hard disk support now?
8.  Write basic system utilities - file/text handling
9.  Multi-tasking / Multiuser / multithreading / Parallel (F*F)
--- Now it's usable
10. Write applications (editor, communications...)
11. GUI (or whatever) - must be easy (and still powerful)
12. Other languages (like C) - Forth-style
13. Highly accurate 386+ virtual machine (capable of running Linux & Win.NT)
    (running partly in kernel for efficiency)  + other emulators - 68k, etc.
14. Networking (TCP/IP, PPP, etc...) + browser, email, telnet, FTP, etc.
15. CAD
16. Internationalization - fonts for other languages, ex.: Chinese,
    Nagari, Arabic, Hebrew.  Translate Forth words.


GUI
---
Full keyboard control (mouse is mainly for drawing, ie, CAD & Paint)
Configurable keys
Efficient window-switching (F-keys, not Alt-Tab)
Keys for full-screen/window/iconify
Switching etween graphics & textmode & resolution/color depth
Ability to run console programs in a window
   (by rasterizing fonts instead of the video card doing it)
Focus sharing? (keyboard control of multiple windows at once)

Building it
-----------
Enter/exit graphics mode, horiz/vert lines
Fonts/textwin-graphics, console terminal (memory-mapped), TTY terminal
Dialog management routines