May the Forth Be With You

This project celebrates the Star Wars Day with the Forth programming language.

May 4 is the Star Wars Day. The date (May the fourth) is a pun on the popular Star Wars catchphrase, "May the Force be with you." Forth, the programming language, is named so as a shortened form of the word "Fourth". The name stood for "fourth generation". Quoting from Forth - The Early Years:

The file holding the interpreter was labeled FORTH, for 4th (next) generation software - but the operating system restricted file names to 5 characters.

So this repository consisting of Forth source code to print a slightly altered Star Wars catchphrase using ASCII stars (asterisks) is like a double pun! Or is that a triple pun?

Also, if Yoda were a programmer, I think Forth would be his most favourite programming language. Yoda would say, "A Forth programmer I am. Hrmmm," and he would add two and two with, 2 2 +. It just makes a lot of sense to celebrate May the 4th with some Forth code.

Source

[may4.fs]

: stars
   0  do  [char] * emit  loop  ;

: lines
   0  do  cr  loop  ;

: print
   dup 40 > if  40 - lines  else
   dup 20 > if  20 - spaces  else
      stars
   then then  ;

: start
   0  do  print  loop  ;

                      41 11 37 11 36 5 28 41 5 27 5
                     31 5 27 5 33 5 28 41 5 31 5 27
                    5 31 5 31  5 28 41 5  33 5 25 5
                   33 5 30 5 28 41 5 35 5 23 5 35 5
                  29 5 28 41  5 35 5 23 5 35 5 27 9
                 26 41 5 35  5 23 5 35  5 26 5 21 5
                25 41 5 35 5 23 5 35 5 25 5 23 5 24
               41 5 35 5 24 5 33  5 25 5 25 5 23 41
              5 35 5  25 5 31 5   25 5 27 5 22 41 5
             35 5 27 5 27 5 26    5 29 5 21 41 5 35
            5 30 11 28 5 31 5     43 2 24 2 25 2 25
           2  26 1 26 1 28 8      23 7 33 41 2 24 2
          25 2 25 2 25 3 24       3 33 2  22 1 25 2
         33 41 8 25 2 25 2        24 2 21 2 22 2 21
        2 29 5 23 7 33 41         2 24 2  25 2 25 2
       23 2 24 3 23 2 31          2 22 1 25 2 33 41
      2 24 2  22 8 22 2           22 2 26 1 25 2 24
     8 23 7 22 11 43 3            27 3 27 3 26 3 28
    3 26 8  35 3 41 3             27 3 27 3 27 3 27
   3  24 3 26 3 33 3              41 3 27 3 27 3 28
  3 26 3 23 3  28 3               32 3 41 3 27 3 27
 3 29 3  25 3 22 3                30 3 31  3  41 13
27 3  29 11  22 3 30 3 25 9 41 13 27 3 27 13 22 3 30 3 25 9
41 3 27 3 27 3 26 3 28 3  22 3 30 3 31 3  41 3 27 3 27 3 26
3 28 3 23 3 28 3 32 3 41 3 27 3 22 13 22 13 24 4 25 3 23 13
41 3 27 3 22 13 24 11  26 8 25 13 43 11 22 8 22 2 24 2 25 2
30 2 23 2 25 2 22 2 23 1 23 2 41 2 22 2 24 2 25 2 30 2 24 7
23 2 22 3 22 2 41 5 22 8 25 2 29 4 24 2 21 2 24 2 21 2 21 2
                                  21  2 41 2  22  2
                                  24 2 25 2 28 2 22
                                  2 24 3 25 4 23  4
                                  41  8 22 2  24  2
                                  22 8 24 2 24 2 24
                                  1  26 3 25  3 473
start
bye

Output

[may4.txt]

***     ***      *    **    **    ********  **    **  ********
****   ****     ***    **  **        **     **    **  **
** ** ** **    ** **    ****         **     ********  *****
**  ***  **   *******    **          **     **    **  **
**   *   **  **     **   **          **     **    **  ********  ***********


*************     ********      ***********    *************  ***       ***
*************   ***     ****    *************  *************  ***       ***
***            ***        ***   ***        ***      ***       ***       ***
***           ***          ***  ***        ***      ***       ***       ***
*********     ***          ***  *************       ***       *************
*********     ***          ***  ***********         ***       *************
***           ***          ***  ***     ***         ***       ***       ***
***            ***        ***   ***      ***        ***       ***       ***
***             ***      ***    ***       ***       ***       ***       ***
***               ********      ***        ***      ***       ***       ***


***********  *******   ********    **     *      **  **  ********  **    **
             **     *  **           **   ***    **   **     **     **    **
             *******   *****         ** **  ** **    **     **     ********
             **     *  **             ***    ***     **     **     **    **
             *******   ********        *      *      **     **     **    **


*****           *****        ***********          *****               *****
 *****         *****      *****       *****       *****               *****
  *****       *****     *****           *****     *****               *****
   *****     *****     *****             *****    *****               *****
    *****   *****     *****               *****   *****               *****
     ***** *****      *****               *****   *****               *****
      *********       *****               *****   *****               *****
        *****         *****               *****   *****               *****
        *****          *****             *****     *****             *****
        *****           *****           *****       *****           *****
        *****             *****       *****           *****       *****
        *****                ***********                 ***********

How to Run

1. Install GForth.

   On macOS, enter the following command if you have Homebrew:

   brew install gforth
   

   On Debian, Ubuntu, or another Debian-based Linux system, enter the following command:

   sudo apt-get install gforth
   

   For other systems, see https://gforth.org/.

2. Run the Forth program in this repository:

   gforth may4.fs
   

3. Enjoy!

You can also run it online on Replit here:

Thank You

Thank you for visiting this project. I hope this encourages you to learn a little bit of Forth.

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