Forth Interpreter and Abstract Machine

Updated: 2026-03 Published: 2015-10

Forth interpreter and abstract machine illustrated in one image.

Update - 2024

Almost ten years after writing my initial thoughts and essays, I sat down and wrote bjForth, a Forth implementation on the JVM. It puts many of those ideas into practice.

Forth has such a strikingly well thought out simple execution model that it can fit in one small diagram:

Diagram showing how a Forth interpreter executes words using a dictionary, memory, a return stack and a parameter stack

Forth interpreter and abstract machine.

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