http://christophe.lavarenne.free.fr/ff/
A minimal and unconventional forth with a small kernel in assembler.
FreeForth is a context-free implementation of the Forth language:
- no interpret/compile STATE variable, but instead anonymous definitions
- no prefix compiler-overriders, but instead backquoted macros
- no input conversion BASE variable, but instead literal base markers
Moreover, FreeForth generates efficient "subroutine-threaded" native code:
- with primitives implemented as macros generating i386 code inline
- almost SWAP-free thanks to compile-time renaming of the two registers caching the top two DATAstack cells
- with optimized tail-recursion, compiling short jumps where possible
- with a highly flexible literal compiler accepting binary-op suffixes
- with variables and constants generated inline as literals
FreeForth is intended to be the base for interactive umbilical incremental cross-compilers for microcontrollers (such as 8051, PIC, and MSP430) and digital signal processors (such as ADSP-218x and ADSP-BF53x).
Currently FreeForth runs on top of Windows and Linux hosts, with the initial boot code in Forth on a small i386 assembly language core with the fasm assembler. A FreeForth umbilical development environment for MSP430 microcontrollers is available.
