Hi all -

This seems like a better place to discuss Reva than the Linux area where it was.

Reva is a small implementation of the Forth language, written in FASM and based on RetroForth. It runs on Windows and Linux, and is under (very) active development.

Take a look on the discussion board (first link in this post) for more information.

Nice implementation!

I've always had a soft spot for Forth, and now finding a forth implemented in FASM!

Would you have any objections if I port Reva to another OS, in the future? (As you know I'm developing B0 to help write an OS, and have always planned as using Forth as the primary scripting langauge for the OS).

Thank you!

I have absolutely no objections at all, but I would ask you join the Reva discussion board and contribute your ideas etc. of there.

All the best,
Ron

Will do that, when I'm closer to starting the port across...

I should be releasing the next version in a few days; looking forward to your input.

Release 5.0.0.13 is out here

I think RetroForth is also written in FASM...

Only the core is in FASM. Likewise is the HelFORTH core. Reva has almost all the words implemented in FASM. As to whether or not that is a good thing depends on your point of view.

Reva 5.0.0.14 is released. The interpreter core has been made more efficient, and the library cleaned up considerably

Reva 5.0.0.15 is released. This is the final BETA release - only bug-fixes and documentation corrections will be made before the 5.1.0.0 release.

One nice new feature is the ability to easily have " characters inside strings, using the "C" idiom of a backslash-escape. Also, the compiled string area dynamically increases so one needn't recompile Reva to increase the size of that area any more.

Reva 5.0.0.16 is now released - bug and performance fixes make this the best version thus far. On a Fibonacci number benchmark, it is twice as fast as "gforth" and almost as fast as compiled C code.

It really (!) should be the last version before 5.1...

Get it here

This is the first public release of Reva - a small, cross-platform
(x86 Linux and Windows) Forth, based on RetroForth.

Reva is not ANS compliant, but does have a simple (and incomplete)
compatibility layer which may be accessed by adding the "-a" switch
when starting Reva.

Some of its features are:

- 95% of core words in assembly (FASM) - 16k binary with around 250 words
defined
- extremely fast interpreter
- runtime code speed is comparable to un-optimized C
- reasonably good documentation, including a tutorial
- quite a few example programs, including for GTK and Windows GUI
- library includes sockets, calendar, encryption, sqlite interface
and more
- native API interface lets you call into any DLL or shared-lib
- it is actively developed and maintained, the bug tracking database
is open to all for perusal or adding bug-reports

Reva is public-domain, and all source is released with it. You can
get it at the "Reva discussion board", located at the URL below:

--
Reva Forth - http://ronware.org/reva/

5.1g is now released. This is the final beta before 5.2.

There are a lot of changes since 5.1. The speed has improved drastically. Reva now supports real "turnkey" applications, meaning you can save your application in a compiled format which does not require you to distribute your source code. There are lots of other changes as well... the Reva binary is about 19K in size now.

Reva 6.0 (stable) is released.
Thanks to everyone who helped get us here!

Differences from the last development release:

- a couple bug fixes,
- help completed
- 'zlib' and 'pcre' interfaces

Differences from the last stable release (5.1):

- produces true binary "turnkey" applications if desired
- over 80 additional words in core, but only 5K bigger in size
- friendly, comprehensive help system ('help' inside Reva)
- much faster interpreter/compiler and runtime (20-40% faster)
- all 5.1 bugs fixed
- single dictionary
- word 'classes' provide great flexibility
- true inline assembly supported (requires external FASM)
- library has been vastly expanded
- regular expression support via 'PCRE' ('needs string/regex')
- GZIP support via 'zlib' ('needs util/zlib')

Lots of other minor changes and improvements. Look inside!

This is a significant improvement over 6.0.

Read all about it on the Wiki

Reva 6.0.6 is released
Read more on the Wiki

Reva 6.1 (stable) has been released.

This is a major improvement over 6.0, and has many more words, examples and libraries than its predecessor.

Reva 6.1.5 has been released.

Lot of bug fixes since 6.1 as well as performance improvements. This release includes "exception" handling (though the Linux code isn't quite working as expected).

I don't know Forth, but it looks like a VERY worthwhile language. Thanks for your hard work (even if I am too dumb to use it).

P.S. AdvanceComp saves 32k off the 2+ MB .ZIP (whoo, size difference between old 6.0 and 6.1 is startling!).

Hi, rugxulo -

Thanks. The language is actually very simple, and there is not only good "inline" help (type "help") but there is also online help and tutorials, and the user community is very active and helpful as well.

The 6.0-6.1 size difference is mostly due to adding various DLLs so that Windows users don't have to look for the appropriate libraries. I've been considering splitting them off, but then I'll have people asking me, "why doesn't the regex library work?".

The core Reva executable is a bit smaller now, about 30K on Windows and 26K on Linux (that difference is mostly because the Windows version has an icon built-in).