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I debug JONESFORTH with a GDB trace file

I debug JONESFORTH with a GDB trace file

by dharmatech·Feb 12, 2026·1 point·0 comments
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AI Analysis

●MidNiche GemRabbit Hole

GDB trace debugging for FORTH, but it's a workflow demo without reusable tooling.

Strengths
  • •Makes GDB introspection accessible for low-level interpreters
  • •Custom Python extensions could generalize to other bytecode/stack-based languages
Weaknesses
  • •No packaged tool—just a video and GitHub fork of JONESFORTH
  • •Audience is tiny; unclear if approach generalizes beyond FORTH debugging
Target Audience

Forth enthusiasts, systems programmers, debugging tool developers interested in low-level introspection

Post Description

Video demonstration of how I explore and debug JONESFORTH using a trace file generated by gdb and custom Python extensions:

https://youtu.be/giLsd-bik6A?si=R48V_1HR2SgnOFzV

Do you have any suggestions for FORTH debugging workflow?

My fork of JONESFORTH with all the infrastructure you see in the video:

https://github.com/dharmatech/jonesforth-steps/tree/main/ste...

Reading the JONESFORTH source code is one part of understanding it. But using the debugger is another very helpful part. GDB can be quite fiddly though. The above approach helps to make introspection with GDB more straightforward.

Here's the trace file from the video:

https://github.com/dharmatech/jonesforth-steps/blob/main/ste...

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