Retro is an implementation of the Forth language. It is minimalistic, but not totally minimal. In Retro you'll find influences from many sources. This is the tenth generation of Retro, and the fifth completely new implementation.

There is a long history behind Retro. Originally created in 1998 by Tom Novelli, it evolved from a 16-bit bootable Forth into a 32-bit bootable Forth that served as a prototype low level language for the Tunes project. A third incarnation, written using a custom assembler and metacompiler never fully worked, and the fourth was heavily influenced by colorForth though retaining the syntax of a classical Forth. When Tom ceased development, Charles Childers took over development and with help from many others brought the fourth generation code to many operating systems and significantly increased features. Along the way it spawned and influenced many other Forths.

The tenth generation is the first complete rewrite since Charles took over. In this incarnation, Retro is smaller and cleaner than before, yet still supports most of the features that were added in the previous generations.