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 c84b9a7e5d move the full listener from interface/retro-unix to the basic image
FossilOrigin-Name: e6fd949a0911730c0db46faf3c20fdb7b265b38bc2b3b3456980d26a4bb1bdbc
2023-12-15 14:10:08 +00:00
.builds ci: dont build retro-compiler (currently broken) 2023-06-29 11:13:23 +00:00
benchmarks benchmarks: add a simple choose benchmark (#26) 2020-12-18 20:18:13 +00:00
doc allow VM device configuration from either C or Configuration.mk; update the build instructions to point to Configuration.mk (thanks to technomancy for reporting the incorrect instructions) 2023-11-20 13:16:55 +00:00
example add new example w/colored d:words; describe added to library/ 2023-12-11 23:39:47 +00:00
future small cleanups, remove redundant file 2021-09-10 17:55:07 +00:00
image move the full listener from interface/retro-unix to the basic image 2023-12-15 14:10:08 +00:00
interface move the full listener from interface/retro-unix to the basic image 2023-12-15 14:10:08 +00:00
library move konilo words to library 2023-12-11 23:47:30 +00:00
man added an initial man page for retro-compiler(1) 2023-11-08 03:37:07 +00:00
old move old Python files to old/ pending future deletion 2023-10-22 22:29:22 +00:00
package add first part of (termina) code from konilo to package/extensions/termina.retro [provides text color; positioning] 2023-11-07 02:25:44 +00:00
security remove old, unused public keys 2023-12-15 11:53:48 +00:00
tests add CURRENT.txt to start tracking what Im currently working on 2023-10-22 16:44:57 +00:00
tools begin using new DEVICE: namespace for device id constants 2023-12-09 18:49:47 +00:00
vm move the full listener from interface/retro-unix to the basic image 2023-12-15 14:10:08 +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
BUILDING.md fix a typo 2023-10-23 18:30:04 +00:00
Configuration.mk next release will be 2024.1; add note on deprecation of legacy code in input/output. 2023-12-15 11:52:24 +00:00
CURRENT.txt add new example w/colored d:words; describe added to library/ 2023-12-11 23:39:47 +00:00
GNUmakefile fix for GNUmakefile (from drakonis) 2023-06-27 00:19:27 +00:00
KNOWN-ISSUES.txt note a possible bug in s:dedup 2023-10-22 22:10:41 +00:00
LICENSE add missing source data for a: and d: words 2023-10-22 21:45:13 +00:00
Makefile quieter output when building; use strlcpy in tools/retro-muri.c 2023-10-22 22:19:38 +00:00
ngaImage move the full listener from interface/retro-unix to the basic image 2023-12-15 14:10:08 +00:00
README.md bump version number; add new patrons, updates to release notes 2023-03-20 17:48:11 +00:00
RELEASE-NOTES move the full listener from interface/retro-unix to the basic image 2023-12-15 14:10:08 +00:00
retroforth.el add retroforth.el emacs mode 2021-03-30 20:41:40 +00:00

      d8888b. d88888b d888888b d8888b.  .d88b.
      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