Using the Interactive Keyboard Interpreter

The interpreter is the default program you will be communicating with using the keyboard and display. It accepts words and numbers, one at a time, as you type them. Numbers are pushed onto the stack; the top few elements of the stack are shown at the bottom of the screen. Words are executed when you type them. If a word is not found in the dictionary, that word, followed by a question mark, is shown in the bottom right quadrant of the screen. This process is called interpretation.

The word you type might be a simple definition such as + which replaces the top two numbers on the stack with their sum. So for example if you had typed 5 and then 6 the stack display will show ...5 6 and if you then type + the stack display will now show ...11

The word may do a great deal more. It might compile and run an extensive utility or application, which might put up a customized graphic or text screen, and might give you a completely different keyboard interaction while it is running. The colorForth editor is such a program.

When any colorForth word or program you have invoked from the keyboard completes, control always returns to the keyboard interpreter.