advantages of forth over other languages

hi,

probably my statements are obvious to the most of you. but
after a long time of struggle with different languages it
seems that forth is most best suited for my needs.

I have a couple of years (20+) experience in software
development with Smalltalk, C, C++, Java and a little Lisp.
I never have been working with embedded stuff.
I'm working in the area of Bank, Insurance, Chemistry and others.

there always have been things which disturbing me.

*) I want to execute functions on compiletime, C preprocessor
    is a shame, by far too less powerfull. so I wrote C
    codegenerator (and even Smalltalk Code generator)
    which also was not that perfect. Makefile has become more
    complex then.

*) statically typing is more a problem than help. I think
    it's more a feature to sup****t optimizing code generation.
    in forth you are free to use a number as integer, pointer
    or what ever. no more casting - yep.

*) syntax of C is complex with all that funny rules that
    one has to know. (priority of operators, left to right
    or right to left - or implementation dependent).
    Forth does not have any syntax.

*) not even gcc does have anonymous functions. no problem for
    Forth. I can switch from compile to interpret on the
    fly - which language sup****t this.

*) I can't simply work with anonymous arguments and dispatch
    those to other anonymous functions. a mechanismus like printf's
    formatstring is needed to collect stackdata with va_arg.
    (expect with Smalltalk and Lisp, of course)
    to have an explict datastack like Forth is quite exciting

*) I can't (simply) compile code at runtime. Smalltalk vendors
    even strip out the compiler while building the deployment.

*) GarbageCollection is not needed. I even gave up (since 4
    years now) using malloc/free to implement the needed data
    structures. there are always other/simpler ways.

*) to inspect my running code it must be compiled, linked, started
    in an debugger environment. setting breakpoints and starting
    the application. singlestep to the place in question (not
    debugging, simply showing if it does what I expect) and
    might see a wrong thing. okay, leave debugger, start editor
    change text - compile, link ... and so on.
    to have an interactive language like Forth where I could
    check things quickly is the most striking feature, for me.
    interactivity in Forth is even better than in Smalltalk.


there are many more small deficiencies which of corse are manageable,
but I'm no longer willing to buy that.

Forth does solve all those problems. one would expect that
such a great tool have to have some megs in size, but it's
the smallest one anyway.


as with every unfamiliar paradigma, practice is needed to grasp
the advantages. it's better not to use the old habits.
one must be willing to master all those _different_ concepts.

well, what I'm doing anyway. most of my work is writing web
applications for many customers in the Unix environment.

I started 20 years ago with C, then C++ then came Smalltalk then
Java, then back to C and now (2 years) with Forth (C as Backend).

hope this text will help some people to decicde to give forth
a shot.

best wishes
Andreas Klimas