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Introduction

Forthy-Two is an esoteric programming language. That means, you can use it to run computer programs, but shouldn't.

If that does not scare you (or you're actually looking forward to using it, because you don't know better yet), this document will give you a few hints on how to build the interpreter.

Prerequisites

The code depends on the following, rather modest, list of tools.

Ensure that you install these things if you really want to continue.

In case you want to contribute to Forthy-Two (which I can neither understand nor recommend, basically for your own sanity), you may want to install

  • uncrustify (0.63)
  • doxygen (1.8.10)

Compiling for Developers (Sandbox Mode)

The normal mode of compiling the Forthy-Two interpreter (for a very specific and uncommon interpretation of normal), is to run

./make.sh

This will compile and install the interpreter to install/bin/forthytwo.

All code is built in the sub-folder build/Release and the test suite will be run.

If you want to build a debug version, run

./make.sh -d

Compiling for Package Managers

If you really want to include Forthy-Two into your Linux distribution, follow the following steps followed by a follow-up examination by your psychiatrist. Also be aware, that I will probably stop using your Linux distribution as soon as I learn about the inclusion of Forthy-Two in it.

The, rather unsurprising, sequence of commands is.

mkdir -p build
cd build
cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr ..

Running Forthy-Two programs

Once you have a compiled and installed interpreter, you can run programs like this

./install/bin/forthytwo example/bottles.42

or if you made the mistake to install it globally,

forthytwo example/bottles.42

This will run the '99 bottles of beer' example, which is mandated to be included in each and every esoteric programming language. Do not look at the source code yet. At least not until you actually bought 99 bottles of beer.

Documentation

The C++ code is documented using Doxygen. The HTML help will be built by

doxygen

Should you make the life-changing decision (which I assume, will not be for the better) to actually read the documentation, open build/doc/html/index.html.

Programming in Forth-Two

You don't actually want to program in this language. Ever. Trust me. I wrote it.

If you want to understand why, see the tutorial in doc/tutorial.md for an introduction to the language. As soon as you understand the full extent of this language, you'll see Cthulhu on your toast. Or his lesser known brother, Bob.

What does the language actually look like?

You're still reading? OK. You're curious what this language looks like? Hmm, OK. Get ready. Here it comes:

13 12 42 10 12 42

Am I kidding? Nope. That's a valid function in Forthy-Two. What does it do? It prints a line break.

That is all. There are no funny characters, no colorful pictures, no rhymes, just numbers. Disappointed? Good.