crc/retroforth: Retro is a modern, pragmatic Forth drawing influences from many sources. It's clean, elegant, small, easy to grasp, and adaptable to many tasks.

Retro is a modern, pragmatic Forth drawing influences from many sources. It's clean, elegant, small, easy to grasp, and adaptable to many tasks.

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crc 27350b987c add a document on building, with details on the non-default interfaces and alternate implementations FossilOrigin-Name: c84a4065016c4079351bf118e5004dc45b1408427031a3a368804c09ff051fde		2019-02-06 21:52:04 +00:00
doc	add glossary entry for image:save	2019-02-06 13:20:46 +00:00
example	add two new examples from Kiyoshi	2019-02-06 12:45:02 +00:00
interfaces	add a document on building, with details on the non-default interfaces and alternate implementations	2019-02-06 21:52:04 +00:00
literate	drop "c" directive from Muri	2019-01-31 13:09:46 +00:00
man	add arguments to retro(1) man page	2019-01-22 18:05:02 +00:00
packages	fix some issues with building a custom image, rre can now save the image using image:save	2019-02-06 13:09:35 +00:00
tests	drop set:from-results	2019-01-11 03:26:11 +00:00
tools	retro-extend (c) now displays an error on err:notfound	2019-02-05 03:22:19 +00:00
build.sh	fix other build files	2018-11-14 22:56:30 +00:00
BUILDING.md	add a document on building, with details on the non-default interfaces and alternate implementations	2019-02-06 21:52:04 +00:00
glossary.forth	new example: html generation using combinators	2019-01-24 17:49:29 +00:00
Handbook.md	add current draft of handbook	2018-12-07 16:41:14 +00:00
LICENSE.md	unix interface: add some directory related words	2019-02-01 20:26:17 +00:00
Makefile	add glossary entry for image:save	2019-02-06 13:20:46 +00:00
Makefile.linux	rre: rename source file for embedded image	2019-01-04 05:10:10 +00:00
ngaImage	fix some bugs	2019-01-29 23:05:48 +00:00
README.md	add a document on building, with details on the non-default interfaces and alternate implementations	2019-02-06 21:52:04 +00:00
RELEASE_NOTES.md	add glossary entry for image:save	2019-02-06 13:20:46 +00:00
words.tsv	add glossary entry for image:save	2019-02-06 13:20:46 +00:00

README.md

RETRO FORTH

RETRO is a modern, pragmatic Forth drawing influences from many sources. It's clean, elegant, tiny, and easy to grasp and adapt to various uses.

Features:

Open Source (ISC License)
Portable (runs on a MISC-style virtual machine)
Small source & binaries
Builds into a single, self contained binary for easy deployment
Sources in literate format, using a Markdown variant

Quick Start

For most systems (FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, macOS, Linux):

make

You will need a standard C compiler and make. The retro-ri binary requires (n)curses, but you can ignore any build/link errors by doing:

make -kis

If you are building an an older Linux system and are running into problems, try using the alternative Makefile:

make -f Makefile.linux

Executables

Binaries will be placed in the bin directory.

The primary executable is retro. This is used for running the examples and the Atua (gopher) & Casket (http) servers that power forthworks.com.

The retro executable embeds the image into the binary, making it trivial to copy and deploy.

This interface layer also extends the language with many new words and vocabularies, adds scripting, file i/o, gopher, and floating point math support.

The retro executable can handle a variety of command line arguments:

retro -i

Starts the listener, a basic REPL for interactive use.

retro -c

Starts the listener, a basic REPL for interactive use. With -c, it runs in character breaking mode, where input is run as soon as a space or enter is encountered. This requires RETRO to have been built with TERMIOS support.

retro filename

This will run the code in the specified file, then exit. This is also used to run programs as shell-type scripts using a header line like #!/usr/bin/env retro.

retro -i -f filename

This will run the code in the specified file, then start the listener.

retro -c -f filename

This will run the code in the specified file, then start the listener in character breaking mode.

retro -h

Displays a summary of the command line arguments.

Source files for use with retro are written with code in fenced blocks:

commentary here
 
~~~
code here
~~~

Anything outside the fenced blocks will be ignored.

Commercial Versions

I provide proprietary versions of RETRO for iOS and macOS. These use a custom, dual pane editor-based environment and some platform specific words and extensions. They do use the same image and virtual machine as retro, retro-repl, etc.

iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/retro-forth-12/id1170943580?ls=1&mt=8

macOS: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/retro-forth/id1317494014?ls=1&mt=12

The macOS application is also availble for free, though the source is not published.

Proceeds from these are used to pay for various project related expenses (servers, domains, hardware upgrades, and an occasional cup of tea).

Alternative Implementations

This source tree includes additional implementations in C#, JavaScript, Pascal, and Python. These are not officially supported, but are provided for your use if the C implementations will not suffice.