retroforth/BUILDING.md

Building RETRO

Requirements

• c compiler (tested: clang, tcc, gcc)
• make
• standard unix shell

Process

Run make.

This will build the toolchain and then the main retro executable.

Executables

In the bin/ directory:

retro
retro-unu
retro-muri
retro-extend
retro-embedimage

Alternate Interfaces

The main interface, rre, is built as the retro executable. But there are other options:

retro-repl

A basic interactive system can be built by using:

make bin/retro-repl

This requires a copy of ngaImage to be in the current directory.

retro-ri

ri is a full screen, curses based interface to RETRO. It provides a display like:

+-------------------------------+
| ... output ...                |
|                               |
|                               |
|                               |
+-------------------------------+
| status                        |
+-------------------------------+
| input                         |
+-------------------------------+

Input is processed as it is being entered with output displayed above. ri is different from the other user interfaces as it provides a means of switching between five separate images.

Additional Dependencies:

• curses

To build this:

make bin/retro-ri

Barebones

This is a minimal version of the retro-repl. It keeps the C portion as short as possible, making it a useful starting point for new interfaces.

To build:

make bin/retro-barebones

retro-compiler

This is a turnkey compiler. It can compile a new executable bundling a Retro VM and image.

Requirements:

• BSD or Linux
• objcopy in $PATH

To build:

make bin/retro-compiler

Example use:

1. Given a source file like "Hello.forth":

   :hello 'hello_world! s:put nl ;
   

2. Use:

   ./bin/retro-compiler Hello.forth hello

The first argument is the source file, the second is the word to run on startup.

3. Run the generated a.out

Limits:

This only supports the core words ('all' interface) and the file i/o words. Support for other I/O extensions will be added in the future.

RETRO12.html

There is a JavaScript and HTML based interface. To build this:

make bin/RETRO12.html

It is tested on Chrome and Safari. The interface is based on the UI used on the iOS and macOS versions, presenting a dual-pane model with an editor to the left, an output area to the right, and a listener at the bottom.

Pascal

There is a Pascal version of retro-repl.

Dependencies:

• freepascal

Building:

cd interfaces/pascal
fpc listener.lpr

This will require a copy of the ngaImage in the current directory.