FURS: The "Forth Upload Replacement System"

In a nutshell, FURS provides the same kind of Cortex-M embedded capability for Forth that Headers provide to the C programming language, namely the knowledge of the peripherals inside any STM32xx MCU.

It works by utilising the information contained in CMSIS-SVD files to modify syntax from the user Forth SOURCE file before it gets UPLOADED to the Forth MCU. The user Forth source is not modified in any way, only the uploaded code is altered.

The UPLOAD code is tailored specifically for the MCU. FURS always reduces flash usage unless your application literally configures every register and bit-field in the entire peripheral set.

The correct API syntax is provided by a 'furs-cli' search app for the programmer to use while coding. Shown here searching for occurrences of 'CNT' to use in source accessing a counter tally. In a way 'furs-cli' is a bit like the Unix 'man pages' in that it's designed for those who know the subject but can't recall the exact spelling or need a memory jog. Normally one would have to hunt thru the STM Technical Manual PDF for this information, then type it in or try and copy and paste. furs-cli allows easy copy and pasting into the source.

A Language Server is currently being developed for integration into compatible editors.