What does HackerNews think of jonesforth?

Ask HN: Where do I find good code to read? | Aug 2023

Is there any particular language you're looking for? I've found some languages hideous until I understood them and could appreciate their respective graces. Off the top of my head the I can think of a couple of projects you and others may be interested in.

The first is Jones Forth (https://github.com/nornagon/jonesforth), start with jonesforth.S and move into jonesforth.f. I really enjoyed following along with it and trying my hand at making my own stack based language.

The other is Xv6, a teaching operating system from MIT (https://pdos.csail.mit.edu/6.828/2021/xv6.html), not all the code or implementations are top notch but it shows you non-optimized versions (just because they're simple and more readable) of different concepts used in OS design.

If you're interested in the embedded world, there is a really neat project I've been following that feels a more structured and safe (as in fault-tolerant) while still staying pretty simple (both conceptually and in the code itself): Hubris and Humility (https://hubris.oxide.computer/).

Advent of Code 2021 | Nov 2021

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> I am fascinated by Forth, but every time I've tried to learn it I haven't really "got it".

Try reading Jonesforth, a literate Forth implementation in one x86 assembly file and one Forth file. You can read it top to bottom and it will explain how everything works step-by-step.

https://rwmj.wordpress.com/2010/08/07/jonesforth-git-reposit...

Github mirror: https://github.com/nornagon/jonesforth

Implementing Forth in Assembly | Apr 2020

Jonesforth is insanely cool. The linked mirror seems to be missing 'jonesforth.f'. Maybe try check out this one[1] for the full implementation.

I recently tried porting Jonesforth to UEFI[2], so I could run it directly on my hardware without needing an operating system. I was actually surprised by how easy it turned out to be.

Okay, admittedly I ended up rushing a bit towards the end, and the final result is very bare-bones - it can do "Hello, World!", Fibonacci numbers, and then that's pretty much it. Still, it was a lot of fun, and I would totally recommend a project like this, especially if you don't usually work with "low-level" development.

I also ended up writing a blog post[3] to help people get started writing assembly for UEFI. The best resource is probably the OS Dev wiki, though. It has a ton of great resources.

[1]: https://github.com/nornagon/jonesforth

[2]: https://github.com/c2d7fa/jonasforth

[3]: https://johv.dk/blog/bare-metal-assembly-tutorial.html

[4]: https://wiki.osdev.org/Expanded_Main_Page

Why Lisp macros are cool, a Perl perspective (2005) | Dec 2019

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In Forth, the interpreter reads tokens. By default, each token is read and then executed. There is a token that switches the interpreter into "compiling" mode. When in compiling mode, each token is read and then used to instruct the compiler to emit code representing the token. There is a traditional and beautiful interplay [0] between the Forth interpreter and its initial stream of tokens, as the tokens customize the interpreter and compiler by augmenting their behaviors.

The main contrast that I would draw between Forths and Lisps is syntax. Forths don't really have syntax; they have token-parsing streams. Lisps are extremely tree-oriented, but Forths are stack-oriented.

[0] https://github.com/nornagon/jonesforth

Lisp in fewer than 200 lines of C | Nov 2017

It seems like arpilisp is inspired by jonesforth[0]. Although not directly stated, the style is similar and the acknowledgements mentions Richard Jones. Anyone interested in implementing simple programming languages might also want to take a look at jonesforth.

[0]: https://github.com/nornagon/jonesforth

Ask HN: What are the most beautiful and readable tutorials you have seen? | May 2015

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I'd add JonesForth (mirrored at https://github.com/nornagon/jonesforth ) to that list of literate programming examples.