Pling! is a native 8-bit Forth-like scripting language, under development, for 8-bit micro-computers; first for the Commodore 64, with other CBM & 6502 systems to follow and Z80-based systems after that
The term "Pling" is another name for an exclamation mark, apparently coined by Acorn Computers Ltd. as the term is used often in regards to RISC OS.
For the same reason you might be using Bash, Batch or Python on your PC; you need an easy way to read, transform and output some data as part of some other project. Good tools like these don't seem to exist on 8-bit micros, so people tend to do offline processing of data for games & demos on the PC. Pling! exists to allow moving such workloads back to the 8-bit machine!
BASIC does not scale well. BASIC is indeed good for getting something working quickly; however as a program increases in complexity, BASIC code undergoes complete spaghettification!
Forth is special in that the opposite happens -- as a Forth program increases in complexity, overall program growth tends to slow down as more and more code-reuse occurs.
Ease of refactoring is also an important consideration, another area where BASIC is poor. Functional programming languages are famous for their refactorability due to strict immutability of global state. Ironically, Forth is the extreme opposite of functional programming in that it works because of complete mutability of global state, and yet Forth too is legendary for its refactorability.
Forth was invented on a 16-bit mini-computer, and whilst there are many ports of Forth to 8-bit systems -- DurexForth is an excellent C64 implementation -- the implicitly 16-bit nature of Forth means that 8-bit micro-computers end up doing more work than is necessary for most of the time.
For example, every number is 16-bits, like it or not. You can write 8-bits to memory, but 16-bits will have been pushed to the stack beforehand.
Pling! is 8-bit by default, meaning that its code is just that bit simpler, leaner and more efficient for the the 8-bit micro-computers it's designed for.
This does not mean that Pling! cannot handle 16-bit operations, rather that the extra internal work for 16-bit operations is only necessary when 16-bits is needed.