rforth1

rforth1, bringing cleverness where it really lacks

"J'ai vraiment besoin d'un servo"
PinGuin, April 23rd 2005, prepation of the French robotics cup

rforth1 (Robotics Forth version 1) is a Forth compiler for PIC 18Fxxx microcontrollers. The main characteristics are:

• Native compilation (no virtual machine)
• 16 bits cells
• Optimized generated code
• */ scaling operator with 32 bits intermediate result
• Postfix and prefix integrated assembler
• Written in Python

rforth1 was inspired by two other compilers:

• PicForth, a Forth compiler for PIC16Fxxx written by the same author
• Pic18Forth, a Forth compiler for PIC18Fxxx, using a virtual machine, written by David McNab

rforth1 has been developped for the robotics projects at ENST and for the Telecom Robotics association which participates to the French robotics cup.

Getting rforth1

You can get the current development version using GIT.

• git clone git://git.rfc1149.net/rforth1.git (this will create a rforth1 directory in GIT format in which you will be able to record your own changes; you can also look at the repository)

Warning: this version is being actively developped and contains no documentation. It has been put online under a GPL license for people with an urgent need of a Forth compiler targetting PIC18Fxxx microcontrollers.

If you want a packaged version, you can get one here in .tar.gz format:

• rforth1 0.4 (2007-10-15)

Tutorial

A tutorial (in French), authored by Jean-Baptiste Mayer, is online on the Telecom Robotics WWW server.

Thanks

I really want to thank the following people:

• Pablo de Oliveira Castro, for being the first pre-alpha tester of rforth1
• Sébastien Gruchet, for being the second pre-alpha tester of rforth1
• David McNab, for his Pic18Forth compiler who inspired me
• Jean-Baptiste Mayer, for naming and finding a logo idea for rforth1