Forth Compiler

The compiler for ForthLanguage.

In the 1970s and 80s, most Forths were implemented as a ThreadedInterpretiveLanguage, which is the fastest method of interpretation. In the 1990s, machine code generating Forth's, using various degrees of optimization, became popular.

• Swift Forth (http://www.forth.com/Content/Products/SwForth/SwForth.htm) uses pattern-based peephole optimization. The sequence X Y Z is replaced with code that implements XYZ in a single step, so the pushing and popping between X and Y and Y and Z isn't needed.
• VFX Forth (http://www.mpeltd.demon.co.uk) and iForth (http://home.iae.nl/users/mhx/i4faq.html) use traditional optimization techniques to remove much of Forth's stack manipulation.
• ColorForth has similar optimizations for the most common primitives, and guarantees TailCallOptimization.

Forth has a continuum of implementation techniques spanning threaded interpreted up to machine code optimized compilation. Having the compiler and interpreter intermingled tends to blur the distinction. There are half a dozen different major implementation modes, and each can have varying degrees of optimization. For instance, although gforth (GNU forth) remains threaded for portability reasons, it uses dynamic superinstructions to garner a 2-3 times speedup. (For more in superinstructions, see http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/anton/vmgen/html-docs/Superinstructions.html and http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/forth/gforth/Docs-html/Dynamic-Superinstructions.html.)

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CategoryForth CategoryCompilers