Factor
Factor is a concatenative, stack-based
programming language with high-level
features
including dynamic types, extensible syntax, macros, and garbage collection.
On a practical side, Factor has a full-featured
library,
supports many different platforms, and has been extensively documented.
The implementation is fully
compiled
for performance, while still supporting interactive
development.
Factor applications are portable between all common platforms. Factor can
deploy stand-alone
applications on all
platforms. Full source code for the Factor project is available under a BSD
license.
Getting Started
Building Factor from source
If you have a build environment set up, then you can build Factor from git.
These scripts will attempt to compile the Factor binary and bootstrap from
a boot image stored on factorcode.org.
To check out Factor:
git clone git://factorcode.org/git/factor.gitcd factor
To build the latest complete Factor system from git, either use the
build script:
- Unix:
./build.sh update - Windows:
build.cmd
or download the correct boot image for your system from
http://downloads.factorcode.org/images/master/, put it in the factor
directory and run:
- Unix:
makeand then./factor -i=boot.unix-x86.64.image - Windows:
nmake /f Nmakefile x86-64and thenfactor.com -i=boot.windows-x86.64.image
Now you should have a complete Factor system ready to run.
More information on building factor
and system requirements.
To run a Factor binary:
You can download a Factor binary from the grid on https://factorcode.org.
The nightly builds are usually a better experience than the point releases.
- Windows: Double-click
factor.exe, or run.\factor.comin a command prompt - Mac OS X: Double-click
Factor.appor runopen Factor.appin a Terminal - Unix: Run
./factorin a shell
Learning Factor
A tutorial is available that can be accessed from the Factor environment:
"first-program" help
Some other simple things you can try in the listener:
"Hello, world" print
{ 4 8 15 16 23 42 } [ 2 * ] map .
1000 [1,b] sum .
4 <iota> [
"Happy Birthday " write
2 = "dear NAME" "to You" ? print
] each
For more tips, see Learning Factor.
Documentation
The Factor environment includes extensive reference documentation and a
short "cookbook" to help you get started. The best way to read the
documentation is in the UI; press F1 in the UI listener to open the help
browser tool. You can also browse the documentation
online.
Command Line Usage
Factor supports a number of command line switches:
Usage: factor [Factor arguments] [script] [script arguments]
Common arguments:
-help print this message and exit
-i=<image> load Factor image file <image> (default factor.image)
-run=<vocab> run the MAIN: entry point of <vocab>
-run=listener run terminal listener
-run=ui.tools run Factor development UI
-e=<code> evaluate <code>
-no-user-init suppress loading of .factor-rc
-roots=<paths> a list of path-delimited extra vocab roots
Enter
"command-line" help
from within Factor for more information.
You can also write scripts that can be run from the terminal, by putting
#!/path/to/factor at the top of your scripts and making them executable.
Source Organization
The Factor source tree is organized as follows:
vm/- Factor VM source code (not present in binary packages)core/- Factor core librarybasis/- Factor basis library, compiler, toolsextra/- more libraries and applicationsmisc/- editor modes, icons, etcunmaintained/- now at factor-unmaintained
Community
Factor developers meet in the #concatenative channel on
irc.freenode.net. Drop by if you want to discuss
anything related to Factor or language design in general.
- Factor homepage
- Concatenative languages wiki
- Mailing list
- Search for "factorcode" on Gitter
Have fun!