Forth Programmer's Handbook is a thorough introduction to the Forth programming language. Written for readers with programming backgrounds but not necessarily with prior exposure to Forth, it offers comprehensive coverage of all major aspects of the language, from basic principles to advanced concepts such as multitasking and cross-compiling for embedded systems. It covers nearly 400 commands, including ANS Forth words and many common extensions. The book describes how programmers use Forth to solve problems, serves as a reference for experienced programmers and presents the language's history and rationale. Forth was developed at the National Radio Astronomy Laboratory in the early 1970s; the authors were among its original developers and founders of FORTH, Inc., a premier supplier of Forth products and services. Elizabeth D. Rather chaired the Technical Committee that produced the ANSI Standard for Forth in 1994.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. Forth Fundamentals

3. String Handling

4. Structured Programming

5. System Functions

6. The Forth Interpreter and Compiler

7. Forth Cross compilers

8. Programming Style and Editing Standards

Appendix A: Bibliography

Appendix B: Glossary & Notation

Appendix C: Blocks for Disk Storage

Appendix D: Index to Forth Words