You need gcc version 2.0 or later to compile gforth. First, type configure configure has the following useful parameters: -direct-threaded: setup for a direct threaded interpreter; this is faster on many machines, but needs special support. Unsupported machines will ingore this switch. On some CISC machines, direct threading isn't an advantage over indirect threading. -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.