Re: advantages of forth over other languages

John Passaniti wrote:

> Three of the most common features of Forth that people point to when 
> comparing against C is interactivity,

Very im****tant in the past. But these days the *systems* are interactive 
and I can get around the edit/build/test loop in a few seconds even with 
a compile/link language. Faster than I can think ;-)

> extensibility,

But if you value straightforward code (as scientists and engineers 
generally do), extensibility is also an invitation to obfuscation. It's 
only a positive feature when used with great discipline.

> and the ability to 
> do run-time evaluation.

I assume you mean compile-time: I know of few languages that prevent 
run-time evaluation!

But here, C folks again use the *systems* that sup****t C: generate C 
code with a script or another C program during the build. You can have 
whatever build-time computation you want that way.

> My point is that for people who are limited by Forth and C, the 
> advantages of Forth are clear.

Are they? It seems to me that the Forthers of the 70's mostly turned to 
C in the 80's.

To me, the big advantage of Forth is the way it facilitates breaking 
down the code into easily understood and tested factors. But Standard 
Forth doesn't do this as well as it could. Locals and nested control 
structures inhibit factoring in Standard Forth, as they also do in C.

-- 
John Doty, Noqsi Aerospace, Ltd.
http://www.noqsi.com/
--
Specialization is for robots.