FOeRTHchen - The smaller FORTH

Welcome to a small and beautiful computer language!

FOeRTHchen is a feature reduced, minimalistic language that claims to be a non-nonsense subset of FORTH. It is known to run on many computing platforms and environments, including very exotic ones. Download the current tarball here.

JavaScript implementation (tested with Mozilla, Safari, Konqueror, IE6, Opera7)

tools: load/view library | terminal view | config

Features
  • multi way implementation: x86 assembler and a functional similar Perl version. Above you see a JavaScript implementation.
  • wordset: emit (.) bye word : ." dup drop swap >r r> + * /mod and or xor ( if( >if( )els els( ) -1 @ !
  • small ELF Linux binary (706 bytes), small Perl-script (755 bytes)
  • embeddable: FOeRTHchen can be embedded in HelFORTH, RetroForth and Reva.
  • self-linking code: the embeddable version links itself in memory. You need to pass two addresses of handling procedures only.
  • forward references: you can reference words before they are defined.
  • recursion: full support of recursion - in fact this is the way to implement loops in FOeRTHchen.
  • free: FOeRTHchen is released to the public domain.

History

FOeRTHchen started as a one weekend project to implement an absolutely minimalistic FORTH. Working goal was to find a useful minimal language that is able to define a more specialized language. The first work was done on the assembler version. Soon followed a Perl version. The first JavaScript version and this page was made on the following monday.

About the Author

I do custom development in Perl and FORTH. Welcome implementation languages are also C, Tcl/Tk and x86 assembler. I'm the author of HelFORTH. I've special skills and experiences in implementing PDF- and prepress-related server software.

Contact: Helmar Wodtke; helmwo at web.de; Hauptstrasse 12, 04683 Belgershain, GERMANY; mobile +49 179 6715898

@booksellers: Leave me alone! I'm no publisher.