Forth Documentation Scraper & Implementation Tracker

This project provides tools to scrape Forth word documentation from the official Forth-2012 standard website and track implementation progress for the Forth.js JavaScript interpreter. I wanted to have the core words categorized so I could focus on certain parts of the interpreter before others. So this is what I came up with and the scripts I used to do it.

🛠️ Components

1. Web Scraper (main.py)

Scrapes all 133 core Forth words from forth-standard.org.

Features:

• Fetches word descriptions and test examples
• Progress tracking with percentage completion
• Polite rate limiting (0.5s delay between requests)
• Saves results to JSON

Usage:

# Activate virtual environment
source venv/bin/activate

# Install dependencies
pip install requests beautifulsoup4 lxml

# Run scraper
python main.py

Output: forth_words_scraped.json - Raw scraped data with 133 Forth words

2. Categorization Script (categorize_words.py)

Analyzes the scraped data and categorizes words by which stack they affect.

Categories:

• Data Stack (50 words) - Arithmetic, stack manipulation, comparisons
• Memory (25 words) - Storage, allocation, address operations
• Control Flow (12 words) - IF/THEN, loops, conditionals
• Compilation (11 words) - Colon definitions, immediate words
• Input Stream (10 words) - Parsing and input operations
• I/O (9 words) - Input/output operations
• Return Stack (6 words) - >R, R>, R@, etc.
• Pictured Numeric Output (6 words) - #, #>, <#, etc.
• System/Environment (4 words) - System-level operations

Output: forth_words_categorized.json - Organized by category

3. Implementation Tracker (Static Website)

Interactive web interface to track which Forth words you've implemented in your interpreter. See the live tracker at https://taus9.github.io/forth_tracker/

Features:

• ✅ Visual progress tracking with color-coded cards
• 📊 Real-time statistics (Total, Implemented, Tested)
• 🔍 Search and filter by word name or description
• 💾 Auto-save progress to browser localStorage
• 📥 Export progress as JSON
• 🎨 Dark theme
• 📱 Responsive design (3 columns on desktop, 2 on tablet, 1 on mobile)

Card States:

• Default - Not yet implemented (gray border)
• Implemented - Code written but not tested (green border)
• Tested - Implementation with passing tests (blue border)

🚀 Quick Start

Setting Up the Scraper

# Create virtual environment
python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate

# Install dependencies
pip install requests beautifulsoup4 lxml

# Run scraper
python main.py

# Run categorization
python categorize_words.py

Using the Tracker Locally

# Start local server
python3 -m http.server 8000

# Open in browser
firefox http://localhost:8000/index.html

📄 License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

The Forth-2012 standard documentation is © by the Forth Standards Committee.