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/getfactor.fhtml>.
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 Compilation will yield an executable named 'factor' on Unix,
40 'factor.exe' on Windows XP/Vista, and 'factor-ce.exe' on Windows CE.
42 * Libraries needed for compilation
44 For X11 support, you need recent development libraries for libc,
45 Freetype, X11, OpenGL and GLUT. On a Debian-derived Linux distribution
46 (like Ubuntu), you can use the line
48 sudo apt-get install libc6-dev libfreetype6-dev libx11-dev glutg3-dev
50 to grab everything (if you're on a non-debian-derived distro please tell
51 us what the equivalent command is on there and it can be added).
53 * Bootstrapping the Factor image
55 Once you have compiled the Factor runtime, you must bootstrap the Factor
56 system using the image that corresponds to your CPU architecture.
58 Boot images can be obtained from <http://factorcode.org/images/latest/>.
60 Once you download the right image, bootstrap Factor with the
61 following command line:
63 ./factor -i=boot.<cpu>.image
65 Bootstrap can take a while, depending on your system. When the process
66 completes, a 'factor.image' file will be generated. Note that this image
67 is both CPU and OS-specific, so in general cannot be shared between
70 * Running Factor on Unix with X11
72 On Unix, Factor can either run a graphical user interface using X11, or
75 If your DISPLAY environment variable is set, the UI will start
80 To run an interactive terminal listener:
82 ./factor -run=listener
84 If you're inside a terminal session, you can start the UI with one of
85 the following two commands:
90 The latter keeps the terminal listener running.
92 * Running Factor on Mac OS X - Cocoa UI
94 On Mac OS X, a Cocoa UI is available in addition to the terminal
97 The 'factor' executable runs the terminal listener:
101 The 'Factor.app' bundle runs the Cocoa UI. Note that this is not a
102 self-contained bundle, it must be run from the same directory which
103 contains factor.image and the library sources.
105 * Running Factor on Mac OS X - X11 UI
107 The X11 UI is also available on Mac OS X, however its use is not
108 recommended since it does not integrate with the host OS.
110 When compiling Factor, pass the X11=1 parameter:
114 Then bootstrap with the following switches:
116 ./factor -i=boot.<cpu>.image -ui-backend=x11
118 Now if $DISPLAY is set, running ./factor will start the UI.
120 * Running Factor on Windows XP/Vista
122 If you did not download the binary package, you can bootstrap Factor in
125 factor.exe -i=boot.<cpu>.image
127 Once bootstrapped, double-clicking factor.exe starts the Factor UI.
129 To run the listener in the command prompt:
131 factor.exe -run=listener
135 The Factor FAQ is available at <http://factorcode.org/faq.fhtml>.
139 Factor supports a number of command line switches. To read command line
140 usage documentation, enter the following in the UI listener:
144 * Source organization
146 The Factor source tree is organized as follows:
148 build-support/ - scripts used for compiling Factor
149 core/ - Factor core library and compiler
150 extra/ - more libraries
151 fonts/ - TrueType fonts used by UI
152 misc/ - editor modes, icons, etc
153 unmaintained/ - unmaintained contributions, please help!
154 vm/ - sources for the Factor VM, written in C
158 The Factor homepage is located at <http://factorcode.org/>.
160 Factor developers meet in the #concatenative channel on the
161 irc.freenode.net server. Drop by if you want to discuss anything related
162 to Factor or language design in general.
166 :tabSize=2:indentSize=2:noTabs=true: