NAME

       gforth, gforth-fast, gforthmi - a fast and portable Forth system

SYNOPSIS

       gforth  [initialization  options]  [image-specific  options]  gforth-fast  [initialization
       options] [image-specific options]

       gforthmi filename [initialization options] [image-specific options]

DESCRIPTION

       GForth is a fast and portable  implementation  of  the  Forth  programming  language.  For
       details read the manual.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

       GFORTHPATH contains the search path for source and image files.

       GFORTHD  gives  the  gforth  executable  used by gforthmi for creating the base images. It
       should be a double indirect threaded system.  Default: gforth-ditc.

       GFORTH gives the gforth executable used by gforthmi for computing  the  relocatable  image
       from the base images. Default: gforth.

       GFORTHHIST  gives  the  location  of the history file used by gforth to allow command-line
       recall. Default: $HOME. (The history file is named .gforth-history).

EXAMPLES

       gforth

       starts the system and goes into interactive mode.

       gforth file1 file2 -e bye

       loads and interprets the files file1 and file2, then exits.

       gforth-fast

       is the same as gforth, except that it does not support accurate  backtraces  for  signals,
       and  is faster by up to a factor of 2.  Use it for debugged, performance-critical programs
       such as benchmarks.

       gforthmi asm.fi -m 1M asm.fs

       creates an image asm.fi that has a default dictionary size of 1MB and has the file  asm.fs
       loaded.

OPTIONS

       --help
       -h     Lists  the  available  options,  including  some  not  described here (see also the
              manual).

       --image-file file
       -i file
              Loads the Forth image file instead of the default gforth.fi.

       --path path
       -p path
              Uses path for searching the image file and Forth source code files instead  of  the
              default   in   the  environment  variable  GFORTHPATH  or  the  path  specified  at
              installation  time  (typically  /usr/local/lib/gforth:..  A  path  is  given  as  a
              :-separated list.

       --dictionary-size size
       -m size
              Allocate  size  space  for  the Forth dictionary space instead of using the default
              specified in the image (typically 256K). The  size  specification  consists  of  an
              integer  and a unit (e.g., 4M).  The unit can be one of b (bytes), e (element size,
              in this case Cells), k (kilobytes), and M (Megabytes). If no unit is  specified,  e
              is used.

       --data-stack-size size
       -d size
              Allocate  size  space  for the data stack instead of using the default specified in
              the image (typically 16K).

       --return-stack-size size
       -r size
              Allocate size space for the return stack instead of using the default specified  in
              the image (typically 16K).

       --fp-stack-size size
       -f size
              Allocate  size  space  for  the  floating  point stack instead of using the default
              specified in the image (typically 16K). In this case the unit specifier e refers to
              floating point numbers.

       --locals-stack-size size
       -l size
              Allocate  size space for the locals stack instead of using the default specified in
              the image (typically 16K).

       --evaluate forth
       -e forth
              Evaluates the forth code. This option takes only  one  argument;  if  you  want  to
              evaluate  more  Forth  words,  you  have to quote them or use several -es.  To exit
              after processing the command line (instead of entering interactive mode) append  -e
              bye to the command line. This is an image-specific option of the default image.

FILES

       .../gforth.fi  default Forth image
       *.fi           Forth loadable image
       *.fs           Forth source (sequential)
       *.fb           Forth source (block)
       *.fd           generated with makedoc.fs
       *.i            C include files
       *.ds           documentation source
       *TAGS          etags files

SEE ALSO

       The  Gforth  manual  -  available in hypertext (Info, HTML) and printable (TeX, PS, ASCII)
       forms.

       The ANSI document X3.215-1994 (i.e., the ANS Forth standard).

       More information on Gforth (e.g., pointers to new versions, to the manual on the  WWW  and
       to         papers         about         Gforth)         is        available        through
       http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/projects/forth.html.

AUTHORS

       Gforth was written by Anton Ertl, Bernd Paysan, Jens Wilke and others.

                                          April 14, 1999                                GForth(1)