Re: The Promise of Forth

John Doty wrote:
> But can one call a notation that lacks the properties of a language,
> "language"? Is it OK to so torture the word because insiders within the
> Forth club use it that way?

What should we do? If Forth is not a language, what else is it? Should we
have to find a special category for Forth, just because it doesn't fit in
your picture what a language is? A computer language is first and foremost
a formal system. It doesn't need typical attributes of natural languages.

> Is Cuba really a democracy because its political leadership uses that
> term?

No, but many other countries have massive problems with their democracy,
and
still insist that they are "democratic". Often, the less democratic a
country is, the more it tells everybody else how shiny its democracy is.

But calling Forth a "language" is not about this. There's no bragging
about "I'm more language than you". COBOL probably is more "language" than
most other languages together. People tried languages with written
keywords, like "begin" and "end", and found that graphical keywords
like "{" and "}" work just as well.

-- 
Bernd Paysan
"If you want it done right, you have to do it yourself"
http://www.jwdt.com/~paysan/