kForth-64

64-bit Forth System for x86_64-GNU/Linux

Copyright © 1998--2026 Krishna Myneni, krishna.myneni@ccreweb.org

Contributors:

• David P. Wallace
• Matthias Urlichs
• Guido Draheim
• Brad Knotwell
• Alaric B. Snell
• Todd Nathan
• Bdale Garbee
• Christopher M. Brannon
• David N. Williams
• Iruatã M. S. Souza

LICENSE

kForth-64 for x86_64-GNU/Linux is provided under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License (AGPL), v3.0 or later.

INSTALLATION

The following packages are required to build and maintain kForth-64 from its source package, on a GNU/Linux system:

binutils
gcc
gcc-c++
glibc
glibc-devel
libstdc++-devel
make
readline
readline-devel
patchutils

Some or all of these packages may already be installed on your GNU/Linux system, but if they are not, you should install them for your GNU/Linux distribution. GNU C/C++ version 4.0 or later is recommended.

To build:

1. Unpack the files if you obtained them as a .zip or .tar.gz file.

2. Change to the kForth-64-branch/src/ directory, where "branch" is the project branch, e.g. master, and type make to build the executables. A successful build results in two executables, kforth64 and kforth64-fast.

3. Move the executables into the search path. It is recommended to move the kForth-64 executables to /usr/local/bin . You must have root privileges to do this.

4. Specify the default directory in which kforth64 will search for Forth source files not found in the current directory. The environment variable KFORTH_DIR may be set to this directory. For example, under the BASH shell, if you want the default directory to be your ~/kForth-64-branch/forth-src/ directory, add the following lines to your .bash_profile file (or .profile on some systems):

       KFORTH_DIR=~/kForth-64-branch/forth-src
       export KFORTH_DIR
   

Forth Source Examples

Sample source code files, typically with the extension .4th, are included in the kForth-64-branch/forth-src/ directory. These files serve as programming examples for kForth-64, in addition to providing useful libraries of Forth words and applications written in Forth. Within the forth-src/ subdirectory, you will find additional subdirectories containing different categories of Forth libraries or applications. These include:

system-test/ A set of automated tests to validate the Forth system against the Forth-2012 standard

fsl/ modules for numeric computation from the Forth Scientific Library, including test code

games/ console games written in Forth

libs/ Forth interfaces to C shared object libraries, such as the GNU Multiprecision Library, gmp, and the GNU Multiprecision Floating-Point Library, mpfr.

benchmarks/ simple benchmarks to compare the relative speed of Forth systems

Important system-level files in the forth-src/ subdirectory include,

• ans-words.4th Forth-94 words provided in source form
• strings.4th String handling library
• files.4th Standard Forth words for file i/o
• ansi.4th ANSI terminal control
• dump.4th Forth DUMP utility
• ssd.4th Forth SEE utility
• modules.4th A framework for modular programming in Forth
• serial.4th Low-level serial port interface
• syscalls.4th Operating System calls
• signal.4th Signals interface (see signals-ex.4th and sigfpe.4th)
• socket.4th Sockets interface
• lib-interface.4th Interface to shared object libraries.
• ttester.4th Test harness used by the automated test code

Documentation

The current version of the kForth-64 User's Guide is located in doc/. A copy of the Forth-2012 standards document is also provided here. Please note important differences between kForth-64 and Forth-2012, discussed in section 4 of the User's Guide.

The portable modular programming framework documentation is provided in doc/.