Re: The Promise of Forth

On Mar 25, 11:32 pm, m-coughlin <m-cough...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>     Forth's bad reputation for being unreadable has faded away,
> but been replaced by having no reputation at all. I don't know
> how Elizabeth's good customers can keep using Forth without
> other companies or other departments in their own company
> noticing they are doing something useful with it. Outside of
> what I read on comp.lang.forth, I can't find more than one
> example of a Forth program in use. We all have our opinions of
> why this is and what to do about it. Maybe someday we'll find a
> way to get our act together.

However, the accounts we hear regarding Ms. Rather's good customers
tend to come from fields in computing where it is not standard
practice, and often not allowed under NDA's, to publish code.

IMO(WBROTBHBPI), Forth establishes a public reputation like any other
niche language establishes a reputation ... by colonizing a niche in
which publishing code is common practice. If this is correct, then the
inward focus of "this is why Forth is not useful for 'xxx'" is by and
large a waste of time. The useful approach for colonizing new niches
would be:

(1) this is an area where publication of code is common practice
(2) here is a niche in that area where Forth has this comparative
advantage
(3) here is proof of concept code
(4) here are the problems in being used in that niche
(5) here are the solutions to those problems
(6) here is the real working code [link]
(7) here are the projects in that area where this code has been
submitted, please go out and find more

Cast the mustard seeds widely, as Leo Wong might say ... most will not
put down roots, a few will. What is important is not the seeds that do
not set root, but the seeds that do.

Most discussions of "what is wrong with Forth that needs to be made
right so it can become more popular" start at (4) and never go past
(4), because there is no (1-3) to focus attention on the specific
missing facility that is an actual obstacle to actual use in an actual
problem.