You need gcc version 2.0 or later to compile gforth. First, type ./configure configure has the following useful parameters: --enable-force-reg Use explicit register declarations if they appear in the machine.h file. This can cause a good speedup, but also incorrect code with some gcc versions on some processors (default disabled). --enable-direct-threaded Force direct threading. This may not work on some machines and may cause slowdown on others. (default processor-dependent) --enable-indirect-threaded Force indirect threading. This can cause a slowdown on some machines. (default processor-dependent) --with-debug specifies option -g to compile with debug info (default) --without-debug omits the -g switch and creates smaller images on machines where strip has problems with gcc style debugging informations. --help: tells you about other parameters. Now type make If your make has trouble with the Makefile, "make gforth" might work. If your installed gcc isn't called "gcc" (eg. called "gcc-2.6.1"), type make GCC= instead. Now you can check whether your shiny new Forth system works. Say make test To make the documentation, type make -k gforth.info gforth.ps html If everything is allright, you may want to install gforth. Type make install You may want to override the defaults for the directories. E.g., if you want to install in the /gnu hierarchy instead of in the default /usr/local hirarchy, say make install prefix=/gnu Alternatively, you can specify the prefixes with configure.