The Factor programming language

Getting started

If you are reading this README file, you either downloaded a binary package, or checked out Factor sources from the GIT repository.

Learning Factor
System requirements
Building Factor from source (don't do this if you're using a binary package)

To run Factor:

Windows: Double-click factor.exe, or run .\factor.com in a command prompt
Mac OS X: Double-click Factor.app or run open Factor.app in a Terminal
Unix: Run ./factor in a shell

Documentation

The Factor environment includes extensive reference documentation and a short "cookbook" to help you get started. The best way to read the documentation is in the UI; press F1 in the UI listener to open the help browser tool. You can also browse the documentation online.

Command line usage

Factor supports a number of command line switches. To read command line usage documentation, enter the following in the UI listener:

"command-line" about

Source organization

The Factor source tree is organized as follows:

build-support/ - scripts used for compiling Factor (not present in binary packages)

vm/ - Factor VM source code (not present in binary packages)

core/ - Factor core library

basis/ - Factor basis library, compiler, tools

extra/ - more libraries and applications

misc/ - editor modes, icons, etc

unmaintained/ - unmaintained contributions, please help!

Community

Factor developers meet in the #concatenative channel on irc.freenode.net. Drop by if you want to discuss anything related to Factor or language design in general.

Have fun!