nife - Networking Industrial Forth-like Environment.

Overview

 Nife is a programming language based on the principles set of Forth
 defined by Charles H. Moore in the 1960s. It does not include the
 full functionality of Forth, that is the reason why it is considered
 as a "Forth-like" language.

 His ambition is to offer people who are not computer scientists, and
 need to make measurements, control of remote devices to monitor industrial
 processes, handling of large collections of data, make calculations, of
 filtering, statistics, can easily make their needs in a Linux environment
 at low cost.

 The simplicity of this language that anyone can understand how it works
 in a few minutes and totally control a few hours to a week at most.
 It can also be used more modestly as a super calculator, just to make its
 accounts or calculations of matrix inversion. The public concerned is
 very large.

 It keeps the forth the following characteristics:
    - Mode operation interpretation: as a shell.
    - Loading source files and compilation and execution.
    - Using stacks (digital, logical and characters) requiring the use of
      notation called "reverse-Polish."
    - How to write new features.
 
 It adds the following possibilities:
    - A true "context-free" language to compile code on the fly.
    - Installation compatible on all Unix-like systems including Linux.
    - Ease of interfacing to additional commands in a program Nife use many
      free tools available in a Linux environment (eg xgraph).
    - Integration of a consistent mathematical library to easily perform
      calculations on a large number of data.
    - Ability to easily add other functions to the base library.
    - Automatic recognition of cards or devices compatible with the library
      COMEDI (http://www.comedi.org) to make data acquisition, signal
      processing, automatic pilot. This is one of its sides "industrial".
    - Variable definition of variable geometry (which may in turn contain
      a scalar, an array of numeric values, a boolean, a string ...) and
      can also become executable variables (ie referring to the code that
      will be called when using the variable). This aspect gives the term
      Nife dynamic language with all that this implies (code compact and
      fast, scalable performance).
    - Management of multi-tasking with the command task that can initiate
      parallel execution of functions, control (whether it is complete,
      refer to the consoles, delete, etc.).
    - Nife programs can communicate with each other via the communication
      tools offered by traditional Unix, internally (within the same system)
      or external interface based on TCP/IP. For this, it has its own
      protocol STSP (stack to stack protocol) for exchanging data directly
      from a numerical stack to an other one. This is one of its aspects
      "Networking".
    - The possible opening towards the use of other devices through the
      integration of specific drivers.

How to compile and install nife

 Download the nife source code, then:
 tar zxvf nife-x.y.z.tar.gz
 cd nife-x.y.z
 ./configure
 make

 WARNING !!
 make install is not preconized in beta version !!

 You can use it by positionning in the source directory and call the
 command :
 cd src 
 ./nife

 You can also lauch the benchmark test :
 ./test.sh

Web Page

    http://www.nife-project.org

Mailing List and Bug Reports

    nife-project.org hosts all the nife-related mailing-lists.
    + help-nife@nife-project.org is for those seeking to get help without
      wanting to hear about the technical details of its development.

    + nife-devel@nife-project.org is the list used by the people
      that make Nife and a general development discussion list, with
      moderate traffic.

    To subscribe, go directely to :
    http://nife-project.org/general/newsletter/subone/view-subscribe

    For general bug reports, send a description of the problem to
    nife@seriane.fr or directly to the development list.

Current Status

    nife is still in beta version.

Patrick Foubet (patrick.foubet@nife-project.org)