Oforth Tutorial 2 : Writing oforth programs
I - Oforth is a dynamic language
Oforth is a dynamic language : there is no compilation phase to run before executing Oforth source.
By convention, Oforth sources are stored into .of files, but you can use any file name.
Performing an oforth program is just sending an oforth source file to the interpreter as if it was entered manually.
The first way to do this is to add file to perform to oforth command line. Let's say you have written this file :
"Hello" println
System sleep(2000)
"Goodbye" println
If the file is named sleep.of, oforth interpreter can be launched using this file :
/oforth/oforth sleep.of
Hello
Goodbye
/oforth/
Intepreter has performed all oforth instructions included into this file.
II - Redirections
Redirections can be used to send instructions to oforth interpreter, using cat, type, ...
Pipe can be used, as input or output redirections.
/oforth/type sleep.of | oforth
Hello
Goodbye
/oforth/
Finally, Oforth can be used as a script interpreter. For instance, if oforth executable is located into /home/bin directory, this script, if executed, will print the sum of all numbers between 1 and 10000.
#!/home/bin/oforth
10000 seq sum println
III - File load
Interpreter can also load files using #load. If interpreter is launched, you can enter :
>"sleep.of" load
Hello
Goodbye
>
IV - Debugging
The first debug option is ... #.s to print the stack. #.s can be added into functions or methods body to print stack when required.
The second debug option is to use --Dn command line parameter.
When --D1 is used, the execution stack is printed after each exception not catched.
When --D2 is used, break points can be set into functions or methods body using #.bp . When a break point is reached, execution stops and it is possible to go to (n)ext instruction, (i)nto next function, print the (s)tack or (r)un again until a new break oint is reached.