Show HN: R3forth, a ColorForth-inspired language with a tiny VM

66 pointsposted 10 hours ago
by phreda4
(github.com)

11 Comments

watersb

4 hours ago

Forth invented as a monitor and control system for one of the radio telescopes at NRAO in West Virginia...

So I have a tribal affinity for Color Forth, by original creator of Forth.

larsbrinkhoff

2 hours ago

Forth was invented before Moore worked at NRAO. Granted, it was gradually expanded from a very small interpreter, so it's hard to say exactly when it became "Forth" as we mean it today.

bitwize

2 hours ago

Sadly, Chuck Moore is old, and Microsoft, in their unyielding quest for innovation, somehow broke the API contract for the BitBlt call in a way that permanently broke ColorForth, and Chuck has decided simply not to continue with it.

alexisread

9 hours ago

Very impressive demos! I did a quick look through the docs- it’s single threaded (in the cpu sense) and not multi process yes?

phreda4

9 hours ago

not for now, just launch many instances!

thristian

8 hours ago

In the first code example in the readme ("First program"), there's `sdlcls`, `SDLinit`, and `SDLShow`. Is there some significance to the capitalisation?

phreda4

8 hours ago

r3forth is case insensitive

thristian

5 hours ago

Ah, it might be nice to mention that before the first code example, then. Or just use consistent case in the first example, to avoid distracting people with details that aren't the thing you're trying to demonstrate.

ripe

8 hours ago

Very nice graphics using SDL2!

So many features-- sprite sheets, etc. Well done!

13415

10 hours ago

Very interesting, great work! This reminded me of something. I just checked and to my amazement Mike Hore's Powermops is still around and even has an ARM version.[1]

[1] https://www.powermops.org

jhbadger

6 hours ago

Yes, that's neat -- it is basically a modern Neon, which was an object-oriented Forth for the Mac in the 1980s.