What is muforth?
muforth is a small, simple, fast, indirect-threaded code (ITC) Forth intended
for use as a cross-compiler for microcontrollers and other embedded devices.
It is written in C and its core is very portable. Because of its Forth nature,
it is naturally extensible, scriptable, and customizable.
It is very well-suited to interactive coding, debugging, and exploration, and
is a great tool for bringing up new hardware.
It has support - in varying degrees of completeness - for the following
architectures:
- ARMv5 (originally targeting an ARM AEB-1 board running an ARM7DI processor)
- ARMv6-m (aka Cortex-M0/M0+)
- ARMv7-m (aka Cortex-M3/M4)
- AVR (Atmel)
- HC08 and HCS08 (Motorola/Freescale/NXP)
- MSP430 (TI)
- PIC18 (Microchip)
- RISC-V (initially targeting the SiFive FE310)
Why yet another Forth?
I initially wrote muforth because I wanted to try out some implementation
ideas. Today there is very little that distinguishes muforth from fig-FORTH -
but the differences go rather deep.
Its implementation is no longer the point. Its sole reason for existing
is to be a cross/meta/target-compiler for other Forths, and their
implementations are in no way tied to muforth's.
Starting points
BUILDING
will tell you how to build muforth. It's stupid simple.
Sadly, there isn't a lot of documentation right now. A good place to start is
to read the source. It's generally well-commented, and is intended to be read
and understood. mu/startup.mu4 - which is read and executed every time muforth
starts - is the heart of the system.
Look in
mu/target/
to find a target that interests you. There is generally a
mu/target//build.mu4 that loads the cross-build environment. Use it as
an "index" to find the assembler, disassembler, meta-compiler, kernel, and
other key pieces of code.
muforth.nimblemachines.com is also,
finally, spreading its wings.
Above all, enjoy!