I guess I can share my project here too... So here's some shameless self-promotion:

RetroForth is an implementation of the Forth programming language. For those who don't know about it, I'll share a few of the implementation details.

RetroForth is based on a small core written in FASM. This is about 800 lines of assembly, including macros, blank lines, and comments. In that space I implement an interpreter, a compiler, and some basic console I/O functions on which the majority of the Forth language can be built. Upon startup, this core compiles some bootstrap code (under 4k of source). The entire startup process takes about 0.035 seconds on my machine.

Main Features:
* Core written in FASM
* Built in editor [new in Version 8]
* Small size: 8-10k, including the bootstrap code
** Core compiles to about 2k of binary code
** The rest is the bootstrap code
* Library of standard extensions
* Documentation covering all functions in the core and bootstrap code
* Most bugs get fixed within 24 hours of reporting
* Rapid release cycle
* Good support
* Runs on Windows, Linux, BSD, BeOS, SCO OpenServer, Dex4u, and more
** Use any Linux system call or most DLL's under Windows
** Also has a native version that runs as an OS

See http://www.retroforth.org for more details or http://retro.tunes.org to download a copy of the latest release.

(As a side note I'm now coding an optimization library that will let the compiled code approach the quality of hand-coded assembly) [/i]

Slow

Reva reports 0.00 seconds startup on my machine:



But that make sense, since Reva is essentially RetroForth with almost everything in the assembly core.

Heh, on my box that takes 0.002 for Reva. But it is true... you don't compile almost everything on startup, so I feel that my performance is respectable. :p

Hi crc,
I'd like to learn (at least some basics) how to program in RetroForth. Are there any tutorials about RF syntax available? Where could I find any info? I don't even know how to write simple "hello world" program

decard -

Just start rf and type in:



That's it. The Reva site (and esp. the zip file) has documentation. crc is still working on the docs for rf last I heard (some of them are based on mine -- we tend to share a lot of ideas and code)

decard, take a look at http://www.retroforth.org/handbook

There is now a tutorial (in progress, but enough to teach the basics) in place

Thanks, I will take a look

RetroFORTH looks interesting but is it useful? How do you use it, and what do you use it for?

Sorry, that was me: I forgot to login. One more thing:
Is it possible to access outside things such as interrupts to BIOS API or port IN/OUT instructions? It would be nice to be able to do more than arithmetic, conditionals, looping, strings, and numbers. For example, if you allowed port I/O and/or interrupts (to BIOS APIs, etc.) then a RF program could print to the printer. This sort of thing would be really nice.
Is this or something similar possible in RF?

Don't know much forth, but I managed to crash it while poking around.

."

Type just the above and press enter. I'm on WinXP

is forth an interpreted language?

It's both interpreted and compiled. When you type in ." the interpreter parsed off the "word" .". It then executed that word. As it turns out, ." is itself a parsing word, which looks ahead until it finds a matching ". In your case, this caused a crash for some reason.

Interestingly, I just tried this in Reva on both Linux and Windows and it did not crash - but I don't guarantee that result!

It is easy to crash most Forth systems, including RetroForth. It's a lot like assembly: if you do something wrong, your app will crash.

Forth is sort of odd; it's both interpreted and compiled. Basically it has an interpreter mode where you can type code and have it run interactively. There's also a compiler which allows you to extend the language and syntax at runtime. This combination is very powerful and allows a lot of flexibility.

I find it to be very useful. (Indeed, outside of a bit of assembly coding, I seldom use any other language now). RetroForth is turing complete, for what that's worth. Actually, it's not too much higher than assembly language.

It's generally used interactively. You can type commands (words) at the interpreter, and define new ones there too. There is also an editor that you can interact with. Learning the ropes isn't too hard. It's a lot like the old Lisp systems used to be: a highly interactive, highly integreted environment.

I use it for most of my coding. Some of the apps I've written (or am writing) include an irc client (for Linux), an interactive fiction game, simple servers (echo server is done, chat server in progress, ultimate goal is a mud server), a debugger (including a simple disassembler), command-line shells for Linux and Windows, timecard calculator, inventory management software, and various custom database apps. I've also written a couple of editors, and am working on a simple assembler to go with the debugger.

Others have done more visually impressive things with it. Some of the users have developed libSDL, Allegro, and OpenGL-based demos, and even delved into audio. Soon I'll have callbacks in place which will allow you to use more of the Win32 API and even GTK. It's really quite flexible

THEWizardGenius: There are various ways to interact with the system, but it depends on the port of RetroForth you're using.

On Native and L4, you can use port I/O freely. The BIOS functions aren't supported as there's no vm86 mode.

On Linux (and soon Dex4u) you can use any system call

On Windows you can use most functions in most dll's

I can post some examples if you'd like me to.

I tried out the Windows version but it doesn't support any of the editor commands or anything else. Where is this editor?\

Also, I'd like to use the Native version but it's in .tar.gz and I don't have Linux. I searched and finally found a DOS thing for those but then I couldn't figure how to set it up! Can you put it in ZIP for us Windows users, and can you also make an installation program or give a link to a program that can be used to do this for Windows?

Other than this I have no complaints, I liked RF even though I couldn't do much. Now having used it and reading the manual further I understand that it's in pmode, but I see no port I/O instructions in the manual? Can you tell me what they are?

wizard, grab hold of WinRAR at http://www.rarlabs.com - it's very nice, and supports a lot of different archive types. One of the programs that is well worth registering

TheWizardGenius: which version of RetroForth for Windows did you try?

There are four words used to read/write to ports. These are:







While I haven't fully tested this yet, here's a minimal serial port driver using these words. This will be added to RetroForth/Native later this week:

Cool, but you'd probably want IRQ-handler capabilities in RF. I just got the stable release 7.6 (from http://www.retroforth.org/) as I said, the Windows one. BTW f0dder I'm just a kid (14) so I don't have any money at all.

Oops forgot to log in...