# factor/factor

Factor programming language

Repository: https://github.com/factor/factor
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/factor
Homepage: https://factorcode.org/
Language: Factor
License: BSD-2-Clause
License Family: permissive
Topics: programming-language, factor, stack, concatenative, language
Last push: 2026-08-23T19:05:09+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 74/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 28, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 6371, "days_push": 10, "days_rel": 267, "gap_med": 453, "n_releases_24m": 2}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1850, forks 222 (observed 2026-08-28T04:05:44.296859+00:00)

## What it is
Factor is a concatenative, stack-based programming language with dynamic types, extensible syntax, macros, and garbage collection. It ships a fully compiled implementation with a large standard library, interactive development tools, and cross-platform standalone deployment.

## Use cases
- learn concatenative stack-based programming
- build portable cross-platform applications
- prototype interactively in a compiled language
- write scripts with a rich standard library
- deploy standalone binaries on Windows, macOS, and Linux
- explore macro and extensible syntax systems

## When to choose
- you want a stack-based concatenative language with a full standard library
- you need interactive development with compiled performance
- you want portable standalone binaries across major platforms

## When to avoid
- you need arm64 support, which is not yet available
- your team requires mainstream language ecosystem and hiring pool
- you need stable GUI support on newer Linux (GTK2 dependency issues)

## Facets
- artifact type: application
- maturity: active
- function: programming-language, interpreter, compiler, gui, cli
- domain: programming-languages, compilers, developer-tools, cross-platform
- platform: windows, cross-platform, cli
- tags: concatenative, stack-based-language, dynamic-typing, macros, garbage-collection, interactive-development, standalone-deployment, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- factor/factor (main) score 74

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:44.296859+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T03:17:07.473532+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/factor/factor (fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:44.296859+00:00, sha 61b9bb9dc00a)
  - homepage: https://factorcode.org/ (fetched 2026-08-29T10:56:25.503757+00:00, sha d081fbad2b1a)
  - site_page: https://docs.factorcode.org/ (fetched 2026-08-29T10:56:25.512654+00:00, sha d97e3ded2a82)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.