And here's why that matters. Below is the complete source of a Forth block editor. This editor is more than sufficient to write an OS with, although of course

And here's why that matters. Below is the complete source of a Forth block editor. This editor is more than sufficient to write an OS with, although of course emacs or vim would be better. That is pretty awesome. Forth is a language in which it's realistic for each programmer to have his own custom editor. That's even more awesome. | RetroForth Block Editor (http://www.retroforth.org) | * Released into the public domain * | | This is the block editor from RetroForth Release 9.2.1 | It splits the normal 1k block into two smaller 512-byte blocks, | the one on the left for code, and the one on the right for | documentation/comments. Both are displayed side by side. | | It makes use of some features specific to RetroForth, so it | will not work on an ANS FORTH system without changes. tib 1024 + constant <buffer> 128 variable: <#blocks> <buffer> variable: b0 variable current-block : there b0 @ ; : #-of-blocks <#blocks> @ ; : new there #-of-blocks 512 * 32 fill 0 current-block ! ; new : (block) @current-block : block 512 * there + ; : (line) 32 * (block) + ; : p 2 current-block -! ; : n 2 current-block +! ; : d (line) 32 32 fill ; : x (block) 512 32 fill ; : eb (block) 512 eval ; : el (line) 32 eval ; : e 16 for 16 r - el next ; : s !current-block ; : i 0 swap : ia (line) + lnparse rot swap move ; : \ 1 s e ; loc: : | '| emit ; : row dup 32 type 32 + ; : left# -16 + negate dup @base <if space then . ; : right# negate 32 + . ; : code|shadow row | swap row swap space ; : rows 16 for r left# code|shadow r right# cr next ; : x--- 2 for ." +---:---+---:---" next ; : --- space space space x--- | x--- cr ; : blocks @current-block 1+ block @current-block block ; here ] --- blocks rows 2drop --- ; ;loc is v : edit [[ clear v ]] { is ui } ;