Update README.md

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Remko Tronçon 2022-06-01 21:33:01 +02:00
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and the I/O primitives to read and write a character to a screen.
The WebAssembly module containing the interpreter, dynamic compiler, and
all built-in words comes down to 13k (6k gzipped), with an extra 7k (3k gzipped) for the JavaScript wrapper and web UI.
all built-in words comes down to 14k (7k gzipped), with an extra 15k (7k gzipped) for the JavaScript wrapper, web UI,
and encoding overhead.
WAForth implements all [ANS Core
Words](http://lars.nocrew.org/dpans/dpans6.htm#6.1) (and passes
[Forth 200x Test Suite](https://forth-standard.org/standard/testsuite)
core word tests), and several [ANS Core Extension Words](http://lars.nocrew.org/dpans/dpans6.htm#6.2)
core word tests), and many [ANS Core Extension Words](http://lars.nocrew.org/dpans/dpans6.htm#6.2).
You can read more about the internals and the design of WAForth in the [Design
document](doc/Design.md).
@ -45,7 +46,7 @@ document](doc/Design.md).
## Standalone shell
Although WebAssembly (and therefore WAForth) is typically used in a web environment
(web browsers, Node.js), WAForth also has a standalone command-line shell.
(web browsers, Node.js), WAForth also has a standalone native command-line shell.
You can download a pre-built binary of the standalone shell from
[the Releases page](https://github.com/remko/waforth/releases).
@ -144,11 +145,11 @@ forth.interpret(`
Here are some of the goals (and non-goals) of WAForth:
- ✅ **WebAssembly-first**: Implement as much as possible in (raw) WebAssembly. Only call out to JavaScript for functionality that is not available in WebAssembly (I/O, loading compiled WebAssembly code).
- ✅ **Simplicity**: Keep the code as simple as possible. Raw WebAssembly requires more effort to maintain than code in a high level language, so avoid complexity if you can.
- ✅ **Simplicity**: Keep the code as simple and clean as possible. Raw WebAssembly requires more effort to maintain than code in a high level language, so avoid complexity if you can.
- ✅ **Completeness**: Implement a complete (and correct) Forth system, following the [ANS Standard](http://lars.nocrew.org/dpans/dpans.htm), including all [ANS Core words](http://lars.nocrew.org/dpans/dpans6.htm#6.1).
- ❓ **Speed**: If some speed gains can be gotten without paying much in simplicity (e.g. better design of the system, more efficient implementation of words, simple compiler improvements, ...), then I do it. However, generating the most efficient code would require a smart compiler, and a smart compiler would introduce a lot of complexity if implemented in raw WebAssembly, so speed is not an ultimate goal. Although the low level of WebAssembly gives some speed advantages, the design of the system will cause execution to consist almost exclusively of indirect calls to small functions, so there will be languages targeting WebAssembly that run faster.
- ❌ **Binary size**: Since the entire system is written in raw WebAssembly, and since one of the main goals is simplicity, the resulting binary size is naturally quite small (±12k). However, I don't do any special efforts to save bytes here and there in the code (or the generated code) if it makes things more complex.
- ❌ **Ease of use**: Not unlike most Forths, I currently don't do much effort to provide functionality to make Forth programming easy (helpful errors, stacktraces, ...). However, the compiler emits debug information to help step through the WebAssembly code of words, and I hope to add more debugging aids to the compiler in the future.
- ❌ **Ease of use**: Like most Forths, I currently don't do much effort to provide functionality to make Forth programming easy and safe (helpful errors, stacktraces, strict bounds checks, ...). However, the compiler emits debug information to help step through the WebAssembly code of words, and I hope to add more debugging aids to the compiler in the future (if it doesn't add too much complexity)
![Debugger view of a compiled
word](doc/debugger.png "Debugger view of a