The EtherSmart Wildcard Glossary

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Glossary I: Glossary for EtherSmart Wildcard

This Glossary provides detailed descriptions of the driver functions that control the EtherSmart Wildcard.  For each function, a prototype is provided to illustrate the function input and output parameters in both C and Forth formats, and a glossary entry describes the function’s actions. These driver routines are available as pre-compiled libraries for the controller platforms from Mosaic Industries, for both C and Forth programmers. This Glossary contains the following:

An introduction that presents an overview of the glossary entries and defines the terms used in this document;

A categorized list of all EtherSmart Wildcard library functions;

The EtherSmart Wildcard glossary; and,

A brief glossary of GUI Toolkit functions that help to implement a web-based “remote front panel”.

Introduction to the EtherSmart Wildcard Glossary

The Form of the Glossary Definitions

Each entry in the Main Glossary of Control-C Library Functions includes a C prototype declaration, a Forth prototype declaration, and a detailed definition of what the function does.  For constants, the prototype simply states the name of the routine.  An example of a typical function declaration is as follows:

C:   uint Ether_Setup ( xaddr xbuffer_area_base, addr mailbox_base_addr, int modulenum )

4th: Ether_Setup ( xbuffer_area_base\ mailbox_base_addr\modulenum -- numbytes )

The presence of both C and Forth prototypes conveys a lot of information. The C prototype explicitly states the type of  each input and output parameter.  The Forth prototype provides a descriptive name for the output parameter (a detail that is missing from the C prototype). 

Let’s look at the sample C prototype first. The leading uint tells us that a 16-bit unsigned integer is returned.  The input parameter list starts with xaddr xbuffer which tells us that the first parameter is a 32-bit eXtended address (xaddress) as explained in the next section.  Next, addr mailbox_base_addr tells us that the second parameter is a 16-bit address. The int modulenum parameter tells us that the final input is an integer specifying the Wildcard module number (corresponding to the hardware jumper address, as explained below).

The Forth prototype includes a standard “stack picture” in parentheses, with the input parameters to the left of the -- and the output parameter(s) to the right.  A parameter with a leading ‘x’ is a 32-bit extended address, so we know that the first parameter in the example is a 32-bit xaddress that specifies a buffer.  The ‘\’ character in the stack picture is read as “under”; this character separates the stack items.  The next input parameter is a 16-bit address in common memory.  The final input parameter is the module number, specifying the Wildcard module number (corresponding to the hardware jumper address, as explained below).  Each of the last 2 input parameters and the output parameter have the default 16-bit integer size: all Forth parameters are 16 bits unless otherwise indicated, as shown in the “Stack Symbols” table below.

Note that C is case-sensitive, while Forth is case-insensitive.  For simplicity and clarity, both C and Forth versions of the functions in this glossary are spelled identically using the same case.

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