Re: The strengths of FORTH

On Mar 27, 12:01=A0pm, "Robert Miller" <rsmil...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
> As to getting FORTH known to the wider community, I am at somewhat of a
> loss. =A0Certainly encouraging code sharing would be helpful - if the
shar=
ed
> code was well done and well documented. =A0Maybe FORTH Inc. should be
> providing T-shirts displaying their Logo with each SwiftX or SwiftForth
> license or with each addition to a shared library - or at least offering
> them for sale. =A0I go to a gym across the street from QNX and a lot of
th=
e
> people in the gym are wearing QNX Ts. =A0I wonder how many of these guys
h=
ave
> ever even heard of Forth. =A0Every little helps.
>

More libraries would be nice, but there's usually not much incentive
to reimplement C-based wheels in Forth when C bindings are available.
A C binding standard would be very useful, IMHO.

I would like to see Forth Inc put out more press releases in the
electronics trade journals, since it doesn't cost anything to do so
and any new release of SwiftX is an excuse to send out a press
release.

Part of Forth's problem is that it's presented as a programming
language, so anyone who ever took a CS class has preconceived notions
about what Forth should be and how it should work. Forth is not a
programming language in the traditional sense. It's an extensible
model of a virtual machine. Instead of a formal syntax, it has strict
semantic guidelines. You run text through the interpreter to mold the
model into what you want.

Forth is white box computing. I'd say that's it's biggest strength.
Everything is visible. If you have a system with several tasks you can
get in there and see what's going on (no halting or single stepping
needed), mess with hardware, turn certain tasks on and off, etc. The C
tools are starting to get some of this functionality, but just some
and at a cost in complexity.

Forth's simplicity and the compactness that results from good
factoring are plusses, but they don't matter as much in the age of
rocket-powered pigs.

Brad