Scot W. Stevenson [email protected]
First version: (Tali Forth 1) 19. Jan 2014
This version: (Version 1.0) 25. Jan 2020

IMPORTANT: As of 2022-11-16, this version of Tali Forth is not being maintained. See https://github.com/SamCoVT/TaliForth2 for the current version. Please submit issues and pull requests in that respository as well. Thank you!

Run py65mon -m 65c02 -r taliforth-py65mon.bin from this directory.

Tali Forth 2 is a subroutine threaded code (STC) implementation of an ANS-based Forth for the 65c02 8-bit MPU. The aim is to provide a modern Forth that is easy to get started with and can be ported to individial hardware projects, especially Single Board Computers (SBC), with little effort. It is free -- released in the public domain -- but with absolutely no warranty of any kind. Use at your own risk! (See COPYING.txt for details.) Tali Forth 2 is hosted at GitHub. You can find the most current version at https://github.com/scotws/TaliForth2.

Tali Forth 2 aims to be, roughly in order of priority:

• Easy to try. Download the source -- or even just the binary taliforth-py65mon.bin -- and run the emulator with py65mon -m 65c02 -r taliforth-py65mon.bin to get it running. This lets you experiment with a working 8-bit Forth for the 65c02 without any special configuration. This includes things like block wordset.

• Simple. The simple subroutine-threaded (STC) design and excessively commented source code give hobbyists the chance to study a working Forth at the lowest level. Separate documentation - including a manual with more than 100 pages - in the docs folder discusses specific topics and offers tutorials. The aim is to make it easy to port Tali Forth 2 to various 65c02 hardware projects.

• Specific. Many Forths available are "general" implementations with a small core adapted to the target processor. Tali Forth 2 was written as a "bare metal Forth" for the 65c02 8-bit MPU and that MPU only, with its strengths and limitations in mind.

• Standardized. Most Forths available for the 65c02 are based on ancient, outdated templates such as FIG Forth. Learning Forth with them is like trying to learn modern English by reading Chaucer. Tali Forth (mostly) follows the current ANS Standard, and ensures this passing an enhanced test suite.

The functional reference for Tali is GNU Forth (Gforth, https://www.gnu.org/software/gforth/). Programs written for Tali should run on Gforth or have a very good reason not to. Also, may Gforth words were adapted for Tali, especially when they make the code simpler (like FIND-NAME or BOUNDS).

The first Tali Forth was my first Forth ever. It is hosted at https://github.com/scotws/TaliForth and is superceded by this version. The second version was strongly influence by what I learned writing Liara Forth for the 65816. Liara and Tali 2 share large parts of their internal logic.

See docs\manual.html for the Tali Forth manual, which covers the installation, setup, tutorials, and internal structure. The central discussion forum is http://forum.6502.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2926 at 6502.org.