Introduction

PropellerForth is an implementation of the Forth programming language for the Parallax Propeller microcontroller.

PropellerForth is still a young project, and isn't as full-featured as many other Forth implementations. Forth compensates for this: everything in the system can be changed and extended by the user, so if PropellerForth lacks something you need, simply type it in.

That said, PropellerForth's standard library is good-sized and growing, and it's ready to support modest applications.

Why PropellerForth?

• PropellerForth is an interactive programming environment. You can enter formulas, compile or redefine functions, and build and test entire applications right on the Propeller, without needing a separate computer to download code.
• PropellerForth is powerful, providing both SMP (by running Forth words on other Cogs) and cooperative multitasking within a single Cog. (The authors have demonstrated over 200 threads running on a single Cog!)
• PropellerForth is small, requiring only 8-10KiB of RAM for the entire core system -- including the standard library, an interactive compiler/interpreter, and the machine-code kernel.
• PropellerForth is flexible and extensible, thanks to its Forth roots. Don't like how the standard library works? Change it. Want to add features to the compiler or kernel? Go ahead -- without leaving your Propeller.
• PropellerForth is highly tuned to run fast on the Propeller. While it's not as fast as raw machine code, it's roughly 5x faster than programs in Parallax's SPIN language, and getting faster as we optimize it.
• PropellerForth provides a subset of ANS Forth, so Forth programs from other sources should work. (The ones that don't will work soon!)

Getting PropellerForth

The current version is 8.01.

• Release Notes
• List of Downloads

Learning More

• GettingStarted
• CoreWords
• SystemArchitecture (for those wishing to hack the kernel)