Retro is a modern, pragmatic Forth drawing influences from many sources. It's clean, elegant, small, easy to grasp, and adaptable to many tasks.
Find a file
crc 4d14cf9058 add a:fetch, a:store
FossilOrigin-Name: 3db0f332c27a6bdb4bbdd704819459095db03f93577ed0ba5e2883a11109899d
2019-05-13 12:27:13 +00:00
doc add a:fetch, a:store 2019-05-13 12:27:13 +00:00
example add a:fetch, a:store 2019-05-13 12:27:13 +00:00
literate source tree reorganizations 2019-05-02 16:25:16 +00:00
man add man page for retro-document 2019-05-10 13:14:17 +00:00
package fix d:words-with (thanks kiyoshi) 2019-04-10 12:19:03 +00:00
source add a:fetch, a:store 2019-05-13 12:27:13 +00:00
tests drop set:from-results 2019-01-11 03:26:11 +00:00
tools add tools/document.sh 2019-04-24 14:16:37 +00:00
build.sh
glossary.forth fix bug in glossary server 2019-05-01 19:46:45 +00:00
LICENSE.md unix interface: add some directory related words 2019-02-01 20:26:17 +00:00
make-book.retro book: begin consolidation of building on *nix systems 2019-05-09 11:33:58 +00:00
Makefile rre: remove built in gopher downloader (I recommend using curl via a pipe instead - see example/NetFetch.forth) 2019-05-10 17:49:01 +00:00
ngaImage add a:fetch, a:store 2019-05-13 12:27:13 +00:00
README.md add example of using sqlite3 via pipes 2019-05-01 14:02:34 +00:00
RELEASE_NOTES.md add a:fetch, a:store 2019-05-13 12:27:13 +00:00
RETRO-Book.html book: fix startup description for -c (now -i,c) 2019-04-29 16:29:52 +00:00
RETRO-Book.md book: update windows build instructions, add some implementation details on arrays 2019-05-09 17:58:39 +00:00
retro-describe.forth in which array: is shortend to a: 2019-04-24 14:02:15 +00:00
retro.blocks.gz block editor: adjust for use on 80x24 display, add a sample blockfile 2019-02-18 19:03:09 +00:00
words.tsv add a:fetch, a:store 2019-05-13 12:27:13 +00:00

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.

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 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 -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.

Documentation

The primary documentation is in RETRO-Book.md (and the formatted RETRO-Book.html.) Additional notes can be found in the doc directory.

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.