February 16, 2026
Cat‑typed coding chaos
planckforth: Bootstrapping a Forth interpreter from hand-written tiny ELF binary
Tiny 1KB Forth sparks nostalgia wars and “why tho” snark
TLDR: PlanckForth bootstraps a Forth interpreter from a hand‑written 1KB executable as a fun minimalist feat. Comments split between nostalgic legends and deep‑dive videos versus pragmatists demanding comparisons and utility, making it a lively clash over artful minimalism vs real‑world usefulness.
The internet is split over PlanckForth, a Forth interpreter born from a hand‑written 1KB Linux executable (ELF). The project admits it’s “just for fun,” but fans are swooning over minimalist wizardry while skeptics reply with a collective “why tho?” The pre‑bootstrap “Hello World” looks like a cat walked across the keyboard, then turns normal after a tiny script, and even crunches Fibonacci to 6765.
Commenters bring receipts and vibes: dharmatech’s video explores JONESFORTH with a debugger, resurrecting classic Forth archaeology. whartung invokes the Chuck Moore legend—bootstrapping from MS‑DOS, floppies, and DEBUG—turning this thread into a retro campfire story. Meanwhile ddevnyc demands substance: “how does it compare to other forths?” Cue a showdown over speed, features, and whether 1KB chic beats practicality.
Jokes fly: “Finally a program that fits in a tweet,” “Runs on a potato,” and “Hello World by my cat.” Hot takes clash as minimalists call it software as art and learning gold, while pragmatists dismiss it as a toy. Curious newbies ask, “what even is Forth?” Answer: a simple, stack‑based language that reads “words” and executes them—perfect for tiny systems. The repo is up, tests run, benchmarks teased, and the drama is delicious.
Key Points
- •PlanckForth bootstraps a Forth interpreter from a hand-written ~1KB ELF binary targeting i386-linux.
- •Building requires only xxd to reconstruct the binary from planck.xxd, plus simple make commands.
- •The project includes alternative implementations in C and Python 3.x and a test suite via “make test.”
- •Usage shows an initial encoded hello world and a bootstrapped mode (bootstrap.fs) that accepts standard Forth syntax.
- •A comprehensive set of built-in words is documented, covering control flow, memory, arithmetic/logic, comparisons, and runtime info.