Dev tools · alternatives · 2026

24 alternatives to PlanckForth: Bootstrapping an Interpreter from Handwritten 1KB Binary

Bootstrapping a Forth interpreter from hand-written tiny ELF binary. Just for fun. - GitHub - nineties/planckforth: Bootstrapping a Forth interpreter from hand-written tiny ELF binary. Just for fun.

PlanckForth is a Forth interpreter built from just 1KB of handwritten binary code. It demonstrates how to bootstrap a complete programming language from minimal machine instructions without relying on existing… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. PlanckForth: Bootstrapping an Interpreter from Handwritten 1KB Binary launched in 2021; newer entries below may have overtaken it.

1
PlanckForth – Bootstrapping an interpreter from handwritten 1kb binary▲132
Bootstrapping a Forth interpreter from hand-written tiny ELF binary. Just for fun. - GitHub - nineties/planckforth: Bootstrapping a Forth interpreter from hand-written tiny ELF binary. Just for fun.
2021 · github.com · its alternatives →
2
Bolt – A super-fast, statically-typed scripting language written in C▲261
I've built many interpreters over the years, and Bolt represents my attempt at building the scripting language I always wanted. This is the first public release, 0.1.0! I've felt like most embedded languages have been moving towards safety and typing over years, with things like Python type hints, the explosive popularity of typescript, and even typing in Luau, which powers one of the largest scripted evironments in the world. Bolt attempts to harness this directly in the lagnauge rather than as a preprocessing step, and reap benefits in terms of both safety and performance. I intend to be…
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
3
Small Clojure Interpreter▲143
Configurable Clojure/Script interpreter suitable for scripting and Clojure DSLs - babashka/sci
2019 · github.com · its alternatives →
4
A (marginally) useful x86-64 ELF executable in 466 bytes▲85
Battery info program for x86-64 Linux laptops in 307 bytes of machine code - meribold/btry
2024 · github.com · its alternatives →
5IW
I wrote a technical history book on Lisp▲252
The book page links to a blog post that explains how I got about it (and has a link to sample content), but the TL&DR is that I could not find a lot of books that were on "our" history _and_ were larded with technical details. So I set about writing one, and some five years later I'm happy to share the result. I think it's one of the few "computer history" books that has tons of code, but correct me if I'm wrong (I wrote this both to tell a story and to learn :-)). My favorite languages are Smalltalk and Lisp, but as an Emacs user, I've been using the latter for much longer and for my…
Feb 2026 · berksoft.ca · its alternatives →
6
R3forth, a ColorForth-inspired language with a tiny VM▲92
r3 programing language - ColorForth inspired. Contribute to phreda4/r3 development by creating an account on GitHub.
Feb 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
7
How to write a tiny compiler▲224
Write your own compiler: introduction. Code genetation. AST. Abstract syntax tree. lisp. javascript.
2017 · blog.klipse.tech · its alternatives →
8
Timber – Ollama for classical ML models, 336x faster than Python▲207
Ollama for classical ML models. AOT compiler that turns XGBoost, LightGBM, scikit-learn, CatBoost & ONNX models into native C99 inference code. One command to load, one command to serve. 336x faster than Python inference. - kossisoroyce/timber
Mar 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
9
A hash array-mapped trie implementation in C▲171
Long-simmering side project that is finally ready to see the light. HAMTs are a cool persistent data structure and implementing one has been a lot of fun. Beyond the code, there is likely some value in the extensive and largely complete implementation docs; basic benchmarks are linked in the README, too. Kind of aiming to be "the libavl for HAMTs". That is obviously a high and aspirational bar but a distinct possibility if it stirs up a little interest and/or contribution. Anyways, it's time for this to go out, collect feedback and maybe even some use outside of toy projects. Let me…
2023 · github.com · its alternatives →
10IM
I'm 17 and I created a Forth interpreter for the TI-84+ calculator▲56
https://github.com/siraben/ti84-forth Hi HN! For the past year I've been getting into programming in Z80 assembly (especially for the TI-84+). More recently I've been learning about the Forth programming language and after a lot of searching online (in vain) for a Forth interpreter for the TI-84, I decided to write one myself. It's been fun demoing this to others, because it's a very unexpected use of a calculator. It's my largest project to date, and I'm interested to know what the HN community thinks, please feel free to critique my code! -- Ben
2018 · its alternatives →
11
Built a tiny interpreter from scratch in C to understand how they work▲5
Hi HN, I'm the author. I built this project for two simple reasons: I've always used higher-level languages and wanted to finally understand what's happening "under the hood" of an interpreter. I also wanted a real project to force me to "power up" my C skills, especially with manual memory management and reference counting. The result is ToyForth, a minimal interpreter for a Forth-like language, written from scratch in C, stack-based. I focused on making the code clean and understandable. It's broken down into a few simple parts: A parser that turns source text into a list of objects…
Nov 2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
12
I wrote a BASIC interpreter in Go▲144
A BASIC interpreter written in golang. Contribute to skx/gobasic development by creating an account on GitHub.
2018 · github.com · its alternatives →
13
Phorth – A Forth-like language on the Python VM▲62
A small forth-like language that targets the CPython VM. - llllllllll/phorth
2017 · github.com · its alternatives →
14
I made an esoteric programming language that's read like a spellbook▲176
i made an esoteric programming language which i call spellscript. every program is a "spell" written in a "grimoire," and you have to use keywords like summon, enchant, inscribe, and conjure. it's literally read like a spellbook because the syntax consists of all natural language, and newlines are optional. your code can now be an essay, like everybody wants! for example, if you want to print something, you'd write: `begin the grimoire. inscribe whispers of "hello, world!". close the grimoire.` it has variables, dynamic typing, arrays, functions, conditionals, loops, string manipulation,…
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
15IB
I built a minimal Forth-like stack interpreter library in C▲47
This weekend I created stacklib.h - a single-header library that brings Forth-style stack operations to C. It implements a basic interpreter with: - Stack operations (push/pop/dup/swap/over/drop) - Arithmetic (+, -, *, /) - Output (., emit, cr) - Stack inspection (.s, depth) Example usage: Stack s; stack_init(&s); dict_init(); exec(&s, "10 20 + ."); // Prints "30" exec(&s, "1 2 3 4 .s"); // Shows stack contents The library is self-contained, requires no dependencies, and handles basic error checking. It was inspired by wanting to understand…
2025 · its alternatives →
16
H2 Forth CPU▲120
A Forth CPU and System on a Chip, based on the J1, written in VHDL - howerj/forth-cpu
2019 · github.com · its alternatives →
17LA
Lambduck, a Functional Programming Brainfuck▲70
What if Brainfuck was less like C and more like Scheme? The interpreter implemetation is pretty bad. It's not very fast, it's not very good, and it's probably not very correct. But maybe there's some vaguely interesting programs you could write with it! For example, the Y combinator: λf. (λx. f (x x)) (λx. f (x x)) is written as: \` \`1 `0 0 \`1 `0 0
2025 · imjakingit.github.io · its alternatives →
18
A small programming language where everything is pass-by-value▲91
This is a hobby project of mine that I started a few years ago to learn about programming language implementation. It was created 95% without AI, although a few recent commits include code from Gemini CLI. I started out following Crafting Interpreters, but gradually branched off that until I had almost nothing left in common. Tech stack: Rust, Cranelift (JIT compilation), LALRPOP (parser). Original title: "A small programming language where everything is a value" (edited based on comments)
Jan 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
19
A toy interpreter for a minimalistic imperative language in 1.3k LoC▲17
A hackable and extensible lexer, parser and interpreter for a minimalistic, imperative, C-like language. - bbu/simple-interpreter
2015 · github.com · its alternatives →
20
Forth Lisp Python Continuum▲6
Forth Lisp Python Continuum: A small highly dynamic self-bootstrapping language - asrp/flpc
2018 · github.com · its alternatives →
21
A Lisp Interpreter for Shell Scripting▲114
Redstart is a lightweight Lisp interpreter written in C++ with a focus on shell scripting. It lets you combine the expressive power of Lisp with the practicality of the Unix shell: you can run commands, capture output, pipe between processes, and still use Lisp syntax for logic and structure. Think of it as writing your shell scripts in Lisp instead of Bash.
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
22
Snigl – Forth with Lisp in C▲87
2019 · gitlab.com · its alternatives →
23
A Lispy, embedded Forth▲61
2017 · github.com · its alternatives →
24
Maybe Haskell▲60
See what it’s like to program in a language without null.
2015 · books.thoughtbot.com · its alternatives →

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