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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.builds retro-unix: default package/list.forth now overrides d:add-header to track header source 2021-08-24 13:10:25 +00:00
benchmarks benchmarks: add a simple choose benchmark (#26) 2020-12-18 20:18:13 +00:00
doc add glossary data for d:use-strings and d:use-hashes 2023-03-20 17:00:52 +00:00
example new example: pali to html (based on muri-to-html) 2023-02-28 15:26:39 +00:00
ffi-testing ffi is working now 2022-02-15 14:40:15 +00:00
future small cleanups, remove redundant file 2021-09-10 17:55:07 +00:00
image bump version number; add new patrons, updates to release notes 2023-03-20 17:48:11 +00:00
interface add glossary data for missing a: words 2023-03-20 15:19:47 +00:00
man nga-c: -t now takes a command line argument for the file name 2021-06-01 13:42:30 +00:00
package now start recording hashes of names 2023-02-05 16:38:04 +00:00
rel/python run black to reformat Python files 2021-01-20 17:41:34 +00:00
security remove old public keys 2022-01-31 10:20:32 +00:00
tests mem:get is now mem:fetch, mem:set is now mem:store 2022-08-08 16:04:29 +00:00
tools add source data for socket: vocabulary 2023-01-26 22:38:02 +00:00
vm bump version number; add new patrons, updates to release notes 2023-03-20 17:48:11 +00:00
.gitattributes github: add file type overrides for linguist 2021-01-27 13:40:59 +00:00
.gitignore Change mem:* API to make memory offset calculation easier (from Rick C) 2022-07-31 00:46:20 +00:00
array-todo.txt update a:to-string 2021-10-29 10:06:04 +00:00
build-wip.sh nga-c: add retro-wip.c for implementation changes from issue #66 2021-06-11 19:36:38 +00:00
BUILDING.md add BUILDING overview document 2022-01-07 14:20:16 +00:00
GNUmakefile now start recording hashes of names 2023-02-05 16:38:04 +00:00
LICENSE merge in malloc device (thanks to Rick C for this!) and start of a double: vocabulary (create variables, constants; fetch/store variables) 2022-07-25 12:15:34 +00:00
Makefile now start recording hashes of names 2023-02-05 16:38:04 +00:00
Makefile.python nga-python: add Makefile.python target to package, upload for pypi (#23) 2021-01-18 15:43:33 +00:00
ngaImage bump version number; add new patrons, updates to release notes 2023-03-20 17:48:11 +00:00
README.md bump version number; add new patrons, updates to release notes 2023-03-20 17:48:11 +00:00
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retroforth.el add retroforth.el emacs mode 2021-03-30 20:41:40 +00:00
todo.txt make a public-facing todo list 2022-01-17 13:32:05 +00:00

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      88  `8D 88'     `~~88~~' 88  `8D .8P  Y8.
      88oobY' 88ooooo    88    88oobY' 88    88
      88`8b   88~~~~~    88    88`8b   88    88
      88 `88. 88.        88    88 `88. `8b  d8'
      88   YD Y88888P    YP    88   YD  `Y88P'

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


Features

  • Open Source (ISC License)
  • Portable (runs on a MISC-style virtual machine)
  • Small source & binaries
  • Builds into a single, self contained binary
  • 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 retroforth.org.

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, files, floating point, and more.

The retro executable can handle a variety of command line arguments which are covered in the manpage, but the most common ones are:

retro

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.


Literate Sources

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 epub.) Additional notes can be found in the doc directory.


Alternative Implementations

In addition to the C and Python implementations, this source tree includes additional implementations in C#, Nim, JavaScript, and Pascal. These are not as well tested or as feature complete as the main implementations, but are provided for your use if the standard implementations will not suffice.


Learn More

Visit http(s)://retroforth.org to learn more and follow along with development.


Patreon

I have a Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/_crc for those that want to financially support development. All funds raised via Pateron are put into development related expenses (server expenses, app store fees, hardware).

Thanks go out to my current and past patrons:

  • Kiyoshi YONEDA
  • Krinkleneck
  • Rick Carlino
  • Scott McCallum
  • Bartels Jon Randy
  • Nuno
  • Eli
  • Brad S
  • Tobias Ammann
  • oneearedrabbit
  • Octavio Turra