Small footprint embedded systems paradigm based on a novel and scalable Implementation of FORTH

This paper describes architecture of the novel implementation of the Forth interpreter-compiler. The architecture follows the object- and component-oriented design paradigms. The implementation is done with the modern C++ 20 language taking full advantage of such constructs as lambda functions, variadic templates, as well as the coroutines and concepts. The system is highly modular and easily scales for small footprint embedded systems. We propose to extend Forth with the coroutine words that allow for async operations and lightweight cooperative multi-threading. We show successful deployment of the proposed Forth implementation on three platforms, two PC frameworks running Linux and Windows, respectively, as well as on tiny embedded system NodeMCU v3 with the 32-bit RISC ESP8266 microprocessor and 32/80KB memory. The project has also educational value, showing intrinsic operation of Forth and modern C++. Software is available free from the Internet.

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Opracowanie rekordu ze środków MEiN, umowa nr SONP/SP/546092/2022 w ramach programu "Społeczna odpowiedzialność nauki" - moduł: Popularyzacja nauki i promocja sportu (2022-2023).