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 5b103f0561 documentation updates FossilOrigin-Name: 87a121ca97382ed8411cc41c1b8527cd354d182c63585e5e939c9aee438cc09a		2019-05-02 19:31:41 +00:00
doc	documentation updates	2019-05-02 19:31:41 +00:00
example	add mandelbrot.forth to examples (thanks to john_ cephalopoda)	2019-05-02 19:31:09 +00:00
literate	source tree reorganizations	2019-05-02 16:25:16 +00:00
man	documentation updates	2019-05-02 19:31:41 +00:00
package	fix d:words-with (thanks kiyoshi)	2019-04-10 12:19:03 +00:00
source	source tree reorganizations	2019-05-02 16:25:16 +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	fix other build files	2018-11-14 22:56:30 +00:00
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	make-book: show a progress indicator	2019-04-24 18:35:09 +00:00
Makefile	source tree reorganizations	2019-05-02 16:25:16 +00:00
ngaImage	rename `a:nth` to `a:th`	2019-05-01 12:18:25 +00:00
README.md	add example of using sqlite3 via pipes	2019-05-01 14:02:34 +00:00
RELEASE_NOTES.md	add mandelbrot.forth to examples (thanks to john_ cephalopoda)	2019-05-02 19:31:09 +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	rename `a:nth` to `a:th`	2019-05-01 12:18:25 +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	documentation updates	2019-05-02 19:31:41 +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.

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.