bigFORTH

bigFORTH is a native code Forth. It is available for Linux and Windows 2000/XP under GPL. The most striking feature is the graphical user interface MINOS (GUI in Forth) and the form editor Theseus (Theseus is still beta). These are the other features of bigFORTH:

Powerful compiler: bigFORTH is a 32 bit system. The compiler generates optimized native code for the i386. You can create turnkey applications for sure. bigFORTH fully complies to ANS Forth.
Versatile tools: multitasker; source-able decompiler; source level debugger (even using optimized macros) with single step and trace, as many breakpoints as you want; post mortem dump and return stack trace; Pentium-MMX-assembler/disassembler...
Editor: multi-window editor for screen- and stream-files.
Extensive libraries: extensive and comfortable file interface (with definitions for the most common Unix commands) ease work even on a big hard disk. System calls and linkage to dynamic libraries are supported. Printer support for listings and session protocols; fast and accurate FP-arithmetics, a "state of the art" memory management, that doesn't capitulate from complex memory structures, graphical user interface (MINOS GUI), object oriented Forth and more...
Transparency: All sources, including kernel and target compiler in the standard distribution, give the Forth wizard everything they want.
Modular Forth: bigFORTH is modulary. Separate compilation is possible, small applications are easy to create. Modules have no arbitrary limit in size.

bigFORTH was originally developed on the Atari ST for the Motorola 68k processor. Later, I ported it to the Intel 386, running under a DOS extender (GO32). These products are commercial; they have extensive documentation. For historical reasons, you can download the latest bigFORTH-ST (442k) version and the Atari ST Documentation (1177k) here.

MINOS

xmas tree MINOS is a graphic user interface (GUI) for X, written for bigFORTH-Linux and bigFORTH-Win32. It includes a rapid GUI developement editor (Theseus).

MINOS is available under the GPL, not the LGPL. I want to stress that this means you cannot develop applications with it that are not either under the GPL, or distributed seperately as sources, just as with other GPLed libraries (for example, readline). For people wanting to develop applications with it that are under different licencing conditions, a commercial licence is available at request so that MINOS can be a choice for proprietary systems, too. I'll certainly give major contributors a fair share.

You find more information in the paper (157k) I presented at the EuroForth '97 conference. More recent informations are in the second paper (122k) presented on EuroForth '98. There's also a paper in describing the DragonGraphics (187k), also available in German (181k).

News-Flash

Current version is bigFORTH 2.4.0, Minos 1.4.0, from 22mar2010.

The version 2.4.0 from 22mar2010 contains more ports, more Forth 200x features:

MINOS port to VFX completed - for Linux and X11.
stability improvements in Theseus.
port to FreeBSD added - and improved port for Mac OS X (better signal handling).
Forth200x features: X:ekeys, test suite for Xchars passed, X:defer
more standard output on ~~, helps emacs find the location
Wurstkessel cryptography example added
other bugfixes

See further changes in the Changelog file.

Release policy

The release policy is now a pretty fixed and reliable schedule: A new minor release comes out once per year, usually in the window between new year and Forth Tagung, and is followed by urgend fixes if necessary. The development activity is released early and often in the subversion repository.

Download

Download the current bigFORTH+MINOS (pre-beta on Windows) release now (includes bigFORTH for Linux or Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000). The packages are signed with my PGP key.

Linux version

The package is split up into five parts. You need source and documentation for start, the other packets are either optional or for convenience. To unpack it, unpack all the files from the same directory. They all unpack into the subdirectory bigforth. cd there and type make, to create the rest. Type make install if you want a system-wide installation. You can use the configure script ( ./configure --prefix=your path) to let it install in another path. Note that bigFORTH now is for glibc based systems only, because I want to force you to upgrade. You might be able to compile for libc5 using an old version, but I don't encourage you to do so.

Source (1323k) (sig): This is sufficient for a minimal installation, and also for frequent updates. Just unpack it over your old MINOS source tree and type make to compile the new things. Last change: 31mar2023, rev. 2.5.0.
German Documentation (2M): This is the (partly outdated) documentation, most of it in German. Last change: 09feb2003.
English Documentation (2M): This is a partly translated documentation. Last change: 09feb2003.
Pattern (433k): Stylish pattern pixmaps. You won't need to download them every time, since they won't change often. Last change: 26sep1999, rev. 1.0.1.
Wood style (537k): Icons and Povray sources for wood Enlightenment style. If you don't intent to use this style, you don't need to load it. Last change: 04jun2000, rev. 1.0.2.
ShinyMetal style (138k): Icons for ShinyMetal Enlightenment style. If you don't intent to use this style, you don't need to load it. Last change: 04jun2000, rev. 1.0.2.
Debian Package (2M) (sig) This is a debian package, created with alien from SuSE, to keep the language shootout happy. Last change: 22mar2010, rev 2.4.0.
subversion repository on http://www.forth-ev.de/repos/bigforth for the really current version. Check out with svn co http://www.forth-ev.de/repos/bigforth.

I packed these tar archives with bzip2, to save you download time (except that you need to install bzip2 - if you don't have it already). The signature fires allow you to check the integrity of the files with gpg --verify signature.

Windows version

Big Red Warning Label: This is beta code. It still may crash. It is not supposed to do this, but bugs happen. If you find one, please report it. The Windows version is still looking for a maintainer who helps to get the bugs out.

Windows Package (1962k) (sig): An autoinstalling package for those who don't have decided to switch to Linux yet. Includes everything you want on Windows. Unpack with a doubleclick. Uninstall before installing the next verion, please. Don't even try it on Windows 9x/ME. Last change: 22mar2010, rev 2.4.0.