February 13, 2026
Less code, more chaos
colorForth
ColorForth: Tiny “OS” with a 27‑key keyboard sparks love vs eye‑rolls
TLDR: ColorForth squeezes a mini “OS” and language into about 2KB, color-codes commands, and promises tiny, fast apps. The community’s torn: retro fans cheer the minimalism and speed, while skeptics roast the 27‑key keyboard and question whether “no OS needed” works beyond hobbyist dreams.
ColorForth is back in the chat, and the crowd is split down the middle. This throwback programming language—famous for coloring words to change what the computer does—claims to stuff a whole mini operating system into about 2KB. It runs on Windows, or even totally by itself, and it’s now being ported to a tiny custom chip. Fans are calling it a minimalist miracle; skeptics are calling it a vibe from 1979 with a paint job.
The praise is loud: old‑school tinkerers swoon over instant compiling, super small apps, and the boast that Forth code can be just 1% the size of the same app in C. They love the “two stacks” design (one for instructions, one for data) and the idea that the whole thing boots into memory, skips the bloat, and just goes. There’s even a wild 27‑key Dvorak keyboard—cue the memes.
But the clapbacks are just as spicy. Doubters poke holes in the “you don’t need an OS” claim and wonder how this holds up in the real world of browsers, drivers, and updates. Some say the color‑coded syntax is genius; others say it’s chaos for your eyeballs. The HN thread is basically retro‑romance vs reality check, with jokes flying about RGB programming and minimalist keyboards for maximal pain.
Key Points
- •colorForth is a modern redesign of Forth that can run under Windows or standalone, including its own minimal OS functions.
- •It is being ported to GreenArrays’ c18 core via the Haypress Creek board and compiles applications from source with an optimizing compiler.
- •The system emphasizes minimalism: a ~2K-byte core, pre-parsed and compressed text, and on-demand compilation without object libraries.
- •colorForth uses color semantics (red/green/yellow) to reduce syntax and does not conform to the ANS Forth Standard.
- •Pre-parsed words use 4 bits for color/function and 28 bits of Shannon-coded characters, enabling instantaneous compilation.