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home / codingchallenges.fyi / item 47101034
+0.32 Build Your Own Forth Interpreter (codingchallenges.fyi)
45 points by AlexeyBrin 3 days ago | 15 comments on HN | Neutral Editorial · vv3.4 · 2026-02-25
Article Heatmap
Preamble: +0.16 — Preamble P Article 1: ND — Freedom, Equality, Brotherhood Article 1: No Data — Freedom, Equality, Brotherhood 1 Article 2: ND — Non-Discrimination Article 2: No Data — Non-Discrimination 2 Article 3: ND — Life, Liberty, Security Article 3: No Data — Life, Liberty, Security 3 Article 4: ND — No Slavery Article 4: No Data — No Slavery 4 Article 5: ND — No Torture Article 5: No Data — No Torture 5 Article 6: ND — Legal Personhood Article 6: No Data — Legal Personhood 6 Article 7: ND — Equality Before Law Article 7: No Data — Equality Before Law 7 Article 8: ND — Right to Remedy Article 8: No Data — Right to Remedy 8 Article 9: ND — No Arbitrary Detention Article 9: No Data — No Arbitrary Detention 9 Article 10: ND — Fair Hearing Article 10: No Data — Fair Hearing 10 Article 11: ND — Presumption of Innocence Article 11: No Data — Presumption of Innocence 11 Article 12: -0.11 — Privacy 12 Article 13: ND — Freedom of Movement Article 13: No Data — Freedom of Movement 13 Article 14: ND — Asylum Article 14: No Data — Asylum 14 Article 15: ND — Nationality Article 15: No Data — Nationality 15 Article 16: ND — Marriage & Family Article 16: No Data — Marriage & Family 16 Article 17: ND — Property Article 17: No Data — Property 17 Article 18: ND — Freedom of Thought Article 18: No Data — Freedom of Thought 18 Article 19: +0.26 — Freedom of Expression 19 Article 20: ND — Assembly & Association Article 20: No Data — Assembly & Association 20 Article 21: ND — Political Participation Article 21: No Data — Political Participation 21 Article 22: ND — Social Security Article 22: No Data — Social Security 22 Article 23: ND — Work & Equal Pay Article 23: No Data — Work & Equal Pay 23 Article 24: ND — Rest & Leisure Article 24: No Data — Rest & Leisure 24 Article 25: +0.48 — Standard of Living 25 Article 26: +0.56 — Education 26 Article 27: +0.46 — Cultural Participation 27 Article 28: +0.18 — Social & International Order 28 Article 29: ND — Duties to Community Article 29: No Data — Duties to Community 29 Article 30: ND — No Destruction of Rights Article 30: No Data — No Destruction of Rights 30
Negative Neutral Positive No Data
Aggregates
Weighted Mean +0.32 Unweighted Mean +0.28
Max +0.56 Article 26 Min -0.11 Article 12
Signal 7 No Data 24
Confidence 17% Volatility 0.22 (Medium)
Negative 1 Channels E: 0.6 S: 0.4
SETL +0.17 Editorial-dominant
Evidence: High: 3 Medium: 4 Low: 0 No Data: 24
Theme Radar
Foundation Security Legal Privacy & Movement Personal Expression Economic & Social Cultural Order & Duties Foundation: 0.16 (1 articles) Security: 0.00 (0 articles) Legal: 0.00 (0 articles) Privacy & Movement: -0.11 (1 articles) Personal: 0.00 (0 articles) Expression: 0.26 (1 articles) Economic & Social: 0.48 (1 articles) Cultural: 0.51 (2 articles) Order & Duties: 0.18 (1 articles)
Domain Context Profile
Element Modifier Affects Note
Privacy —
Article 12
Google Analytics with anonymize_ip enabled; privacy policy not directly accessible from content provided
Terms of Service —
Not observable from provided content
Accessibility —
Article 26
Dark/light theme toggle and skip navigation present; full accessibility audit not possible from content
Mission +0.15
Article 26 Article 27
Educational platform providing free coding challenges promotes learning and equal access to education
Editorial Code —
No explicit editorial code observable
Ownership —
Ownership structure not stated in provided content
Access Model +0.12
Article 25 Article 26
Public educational content appears to be freely accessible without apparent paywalls
Ad/Tracking -0.08
Article 12
Google Analytics tracking present; minimal privacy concern due to IP anonymization
HN Discussion 6 top-level · 0 replies
ithkuil 2026-02-24 21:18 UTC link
"if you know one forth, you know one forth"
iberator 2026-02-24 21:35 UTC link
This is a strange article imo.

I was expecting to see FORTH in bare metal C or ASM.

There is a common myth about newbie programmers that FORTH is write-only and that you need to type everything in one line, without comments or function calls etc.

Writing forth is super easy especially if you have a stack machine at your disposal. For example when you are building your own virtual cpu/architecture with assembler and compiler.

It's more trivial than to understand any JavaScript framework lol

Research FORTH more guys - it doesn't need to be strange and hard :)

ps. Lisp SUCKS

/rant

spc476 2026-02-24 21:48 UTC link
I've already done that---ANS Forth for the 6809 (https://github.com/spc476/ANS-Forth).
dharmatech 2026-02-24 22:00 UTC link
Video where I demonstrate how I explore JONESFORTH using GDB:

https://youtu.be/giLsd-bik6A?si=Gwm3NJdUzyrmmopH

tombert 2026-02-24 23:22 UTC link
I've been on/off working on a homebrew NES game. Pretty much the go-to environment for that is assembly, which I'm sure I could write if I were motivated, but I find assembly considerably un-fun so I wanted to use a higher-level language.

I had been looking for an excuse to learn Forth, and its use in classic computing meant that it had a shot of being workable on the NES.

I was initially using IceForth but I had trouble getting that working, and so I got Codex to generate something that works, but then I also that building your own Forth is sort of a rite of passage for a software engineer, so I have been building my own Forth from scratch.

My custom hack-job isn't ready yet, but I was extremely impressed at the performance I was able to get on the NES with compiled Forth from the Codex thing on the NES. I'm getting roughly 80% of the speed for equivalent programs written in assembly, with much less code and this is without advanced optimizations. I do plan on finishing my custom one because I think I can build what I want a bit better than Codex, and I'm optimistic I can get the performance reasonable.

Forth is such a fascinating language, because it sort of enables you to work at any level of the program. You can write it super high level, almost like Lisp, but you can also poke around and create mappings to assembly, and you can do all this with decent performance no less! It has quickly become one of my more favorite scripting languages, though that might be because I have always had a soft spot for RPN.

SAI_Peregrinus 2026-02-25 01:53 UTC link
I like building little throwaway FORTH interpreters as an exercise when learning a new language. They tend to touch just enough common programming needs to be interesting: read user input and/or a file, parse the input, run a state machine with two stacks, write output.
Score Breakdown
+0.16
Preamble Preamble
Medium A-education F-accessibility
Editorial
+0.20
Structural
+0.10
SETL
+0.14
Combined
ND
Context Modifier
ND

Content emphasizes learning and skill development through accessible educational challenge. No direct human dignity language, but educational access aligns with preamble values.

ND
Article 1 Freedom, Equality, Brotherhood

No observable content addressing equality, freedom, reason, or conscience.

ND
Article 2 Non-Discrimination

No observable content addressing discrimination.

ND
Article 3 Life, Liberty, Security

No observable content addressing life, liberty, security of person.

ND
Article 4 No Slavery

No observable content addressing slavery or servitude.

ND
Article 5 No Torture

No observable content addressing torture or cruel treatment.

ND
Article 6 Legal Personhood

No observable content addressing legal personhood.

ND
Article 7 Equality Before Law

No observable content addressing equality before law.

ND
Article 8 Right to Remedy

No observable content addressing judicial remedy.

ND
Article 9 No Arbitrary Detention

No observable content addressing arbitrary arrest or detention.

ND
Article 10 Fair Hearing

No observable content addressing fair trial rights.

ND
Article 11 Presumption of Innocence

No observable content addressing criminal liability or presumption of innocence.

-0.11
Article 12 Privacy
Medium P-tracking
Editorial
ND
Structural
-0.08
SETL
ND
Combined
ND
Context Modifier
ND

Google Analytics with IP anonymization present. Minimal privacy impact due to anonymization, but tracking signal observable. Context modifier applied for ad_tracking.

ND
Article 13 Freedom of Movement

No observable content addressing freedom of movement.

ND
Article 14 Asylum

No observable content addressing asylum or refuge.

ND
Article 15 Nationality

No observable content addressing nationality.

ND
Article 16 Marriage & Family

No observable content addressing marriage or family.

ND
Article 17 Property

No observable content addressing property rights.

ND
Article 18 Freedom of Thought

No observable content addressing freedom of thought or conscience.

+0.26
Article 19 Freedom of Expression
Medium A-education P-access
Editorial
+0.30
Structural
+0.20
SETL
+0.17
Combined
ND
Context Modifier
ND

Educational content freely published and accessible; platform facilitates expression through learning challenges. Support for information access observable through open challenge structure.

ND
Article 20 Assembly & Association

No observable content addressing freedom of assembly or association.

ND
Article 21 Political Participation

No observable content addressing political participation.

ND
Article 22 Social Security

No observable content addressing social security.

ND
Article 23 Work & Equal Pay

No observable content addressing work or employment.

ND
Article 24 Rest & Leisure

No observable content addressing rest and leisure.

+0.48
Article 25 Standard of Living
High A-education P-access
Editorial
+0.40
Structural
+0.30
SETL
+0.20
Combined
ND
Context Modifier
ND

Educational challenge platform directly supports standard of living and well-being through free access to learning. No barriers to participation observed. Context modifier applied for access_model.

+0.56
Article 26 Education
High A-education P-accessibility F-equal-access
Editorial
+0.45
Structural
+0.35
SETL
+0.21
Combined
ND
Context Modifier
ND

Platform explicitly promotes education through free coding challenges. Accessibility features (dark/light theme, skip navigation) observed. Free access model removes financial barriers. Strong alignment with right to education. Context modifiers applied for mission and access_model.

+0.46
Article 27 Cultural Participation
High A-education F-skill-development
Editorial
+0.35
Structural
+0.25
SETL
+0.19
Combined
ND
Context Modifier
ND

Forth interpreter challenge supports participation in cultural and scientific advancement. Educational platform facilitates skill development and technical knowledge sharing. Context modifier applied for mission.

+0.18
Article 28 Social & International Order
Medium A-education P-access
Editorial
+0.20
Structural
+0.15
SETL
+0.10
Combined
ND
Context Modifier
ND

Free educational access supports social order promoting fundamental freedoms. No observable barriers or restrictions on participation.

ND
Article 29 Duties to Community

No observable content addressing duties to community.

ND
Article 30 No Destruction of Rights

No observable content addressing limitations on rights or state authority.
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build f581ea9+b3nz · 2026-02-25 03:04 UTC