1 The Factor programming language
2 -------------------------------
4 This file covers installation and basic usage of the Factor
5 implementation. It is not an introduction to the language itself.
9 - Compiling the Factor VM
10 - Libraries needed for compilation
11 - Bootstrapping the Factor image
12 - Running Factor on Unix with X11
13 - Running Factor on Mac OS X - Cocoa UI
14 - Running Factor on Mac OS X - X11 UI
15 - Running Factor on Windows
21 * Compiling the Factor VM
23 The Factor runtime is written in GNU C99, and is built with GNU make and
26 Factor supports various platforms. For an up-to-date list, see
27 <http://factorcode.org>.
29 Factor requires gcc 3.4 or later.
31 On x86, Factor /will not/ build using gcc 3.3 or earlier.
33 If you are using gcc 4.3, you might get an unusable Factor binary unless
34 you add 'SITE_CFLAGS=-fno-forward-propagate' to the command-line
37 Run 'make' ('gmake' on *BSD) with no parameters to build the Factor VM.
39 * Bootstrapping the Factor image
41 Once you have compiled the Factor runtime, you must bootstrap the Factor
42 system using the image that corresponds to your CPU architecture.
44 Boot images can be obtained from <http://factorcode.org/images/latest/>.
46 Once you download the right image, bootstrap Factor with the
47 following command line:
49 ./factor -i=boot.<cpu>.image
51 Bootstrap can take a while, depending on your system. When the process
52 completes, a 'factor.image' file will be generated. Note that this image
53 is both CPU and OS-specific, so in general cannot be shared between
56 * Running Factor on Unix with X11
58 On Unix, Factor can either run a graphical user interface using X11, or
61 For X11 support, you need recent development libraries for libc,
62 Pango, X11, OpenGL and GLUT. On a Debian-derived Linux distribution
63 (like Ubuntu), you can use the following line to grab everything:
65 sudo apt-get install libc6-dev libpango-1.0-dev libx11-dev glutg3-dev
67 If your DISPLAY environment variable is set, the UI will start
72 To run an interactive terminal listener:
74 ./factor -run=listener
76 * Running Factor on Mac OS X - Cocoa UI
78 On Mac OS X, a Cocoa UI is available in addition to the terminal
81 The 'factor' executable runs the terminal listener:
85 The 'Factor.app' bundle runs the Cocoa UI. Note that this is not a
86 self-contained bundle, it must be run from the same directory which
87 contains factor.image and the library sources.
89 * Running Factor on Mac OS X - X11 UI
91 The X11 UI is also available on Mac OS X, however its use is not
92 recommended since it does not integrate with the host OS.
94 When compiling Factor, pass the X11=1 parameter:
98 Then bootstrap with the following switches:
100 ./factor -i=boot.<cpu>.image -ui-backend=x11 -ui-text-backend=pango
102 Now if $DISPLAY is set, running ./factor will start the UI.
104 * Running Factor on Windows XP/Vista
106 The Factor runtime is compiled into two binaries:
108 factor.com - a Windows console application
109 factor.exe - a Windows native application, without a console
111 If you did not download the binary package, you can bootstrap Factor in
112 the command prompt using the console application:
114 factor.com -i=boot.<cpu>.image
116 Once bootstrapped, double-clicking factor.exe or factor.com starts
119 To run the listener in the command prompt:
121 factor.com -run=listener
125 The Factor FAQ is available at the following location:
127 <http://concatenative.org/wiki/view/Factor/FAQ>
131 Factor supports a number of command line switches. To read command line
132 usage documentation, enter the following in the UI listener:
136 * Source organization
138 The Factor source tree is organized as follows:
140 build-support/ - scripts used for compiling Factor
141 vm/ - sources for the Factor VM, written in C
142 core/ - Factor core library
143 basis/ - Factor basis library, compiler, tools
144 extra/ - more libraries and applications
145 misc/ - editor modes, icons, etc
146 unmaintained/ - unmaintained contributions, please help!
150 The Factor homepage is located at <http://factorcode.org/>.
152 Factor developers meet in the #concatenative channel on the
153 irc.freenode.net server. Drop by if you want to discuss anything related
154 to Factor or language design in general.
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