One of my hobby projects awaiting some free time is an OS. I figure that since Forth is so easy to implement that I can just build a simple Forth implementatio

One of my hobby projects awaiting some free time is an OS. I figure that since Forth is so easy to implement that I can just build a simple Forth implementation for a CPU, then write a Lisp implementation in that Forth — then if I ever want to port my OS, it’s relatively simple. I think that this would be a nice way to avoid the unsafety issues with Forth: keep the unsafe code compartmented away in the relatively small Forth kernel, while all the high-level stuff is written in a language with sufficient safety guarantees. I imagine that a Forth purist wouldn’t be terribly fond of that approach. Probably from that mindset a full Lisp implementation is overkill. But from my mindset a full Forth system would be difficult to reason about. Maybe folks who implemented programs in Postscript or NeWS would disagree. Now all I need to do is retire, inherit a legacy or win the lottery (although first I’d have to play the lottery) …