PlanckForth: Bootstrapping Forth from Handwritten Binary

This project aims to bootstrap a Forth interpreter from hand-written tiny ELF binary.

How to build

You can create a binary for x86 linux environment by following steps. Only xxd is needed to build PlanckForth.

$ git clone https://github.com/nineties/planckforth.git
$ cd planckforth
$ make
xxd -r -c 8 planck.xxd > planck
chmod +x planck

There are implementations in C and Python 3 as a reference in others. Try make c or make python

Hello World

The hello world program at the beginning looks like this.

$ ./planck
kHtketkltkltkotk tkWtkotkrtkltkdtk!tk:k0-tQ

After bootstrapping by bootstrap.fs, it looks like this.

$ ./planck < bootstrap.fs --i386-linux
Ready.
." Hello World!" cr

The option --i386-linux is to specify OS and hardware for dynamic code generation by bootstrap.fs. It is not necessay in case of implementations by other languages.

bootstrap.fs also takes a file as an input like this.

$ cat example/fib.fs
: fib dup 2 < unless 1- dup recurse swap 1- recurse + then ;
38 fib . cr
$ ./planck < bootstrap.fs --i386-linux example/fib.fs
39088169

Builtin Words

code	name	stack effect	semantics
Q	quit	( -- )	Exit the process
C	cell	( -- n )	The size of Cells
h	&here	( -- a-addr )	The address of 'here' cell
l	&latest	( -- a-addr )	The address of 'latest' cell
k	key	( -- c )	Read character
t	type	( c -- )	Print character
j	jump	( -- )	Unconditional branch
J	0jump	( n -- )	Jump if a == 0
f	find	( c -- xt )	Get execution token of c
x	execute	( xt -- ... )	Run the execution token
@	fetch	( a-addr -- w )	Load value from addr
!	store	( w a-addr -- )	Store value to addr
?	cfetch	( c-addr -- c )	Load byte from addr
$	cstore	( c c-addr -- )	Store byte to addr
d	dfetch	( -- a-addr )	Get data stack pointer
D	dstore	( a-addr -- )	Set data stack pointer
r	rfetch	( -- a-addr )	Get return stack pointer
R	rstore	( a-addr -- )	Set return stack pointer
i	docol	( -- a-addr )	Get the interpreter function
e	exit	( -- )	Exit current function
L	lit	( -- n )	Load immediate
S	litstring	( -- c-addr )	Load string literal
+	add	( a b -- c )	c = (a + b)
-	sub	( a b -- c )	c = (a - b)
*	mul	( a b -- c )	c = (a * b)
/	div	( a b -- c )	c = (a / b)
%	mod	( a b -- c )	c = (a % b)
&	and	( a b -- c )	c = (a & b)
|	or	( a b -- c )	c = (a | b)
^	xor	( a b -- c )	c = (a ^ b)
<	less	( a b -- c )	c = (a < b)
=	equal	( a b -- c )	c = (a == b)