Re: advantages of forth over other languages

John Doty wrote:
>> Coders love to learn new languages.  After all, it's what we do!
> 
> Yes, but the people who actually accomplish things with computers have 
> other priorities.

No, it's the same priorities.  But like so many discussions in 
comp.lang.forth, you take an overly-literal interpretation of what 
people write and make no attempt to understand the meaning.

Take "learn new languages" as an example.  The purpose of a programming 
language is to express a solution within the paradigms, abstractions, 
models, and idioms sup****ted by that language.  In that sense, "learn 
new languages" means understanding different ways to conceptualize and 
create a solution for a problem.

In other words, the point of "learn new languages" is to be able to 
"accomplish things with computers" by enlarging the choices one has and 
the techniques one might use.  A programmer who only knows one language 
and is stuck within what that language may certainly "accomplish things 
with computers," but it may not be the best solution.

The more naive and inexperienced programmers don't get this because they 
are stuck within a paradigm and think that describes the world.  To 
them, the differences between languages is nothing more than syntax.

You don't suffer from this-- at least I don't think you do.  You've 
mentioned experience with languages that suggest you understand at least 
two different paradigms (procedural and functional) and there may be 
others.  So your experience must be broad enough and your mind must be 
agile enough to envision solutions that may be quite different from each 
other, and not just in terms of syntax.

So yeah, you must at some level understand that "learn new languages" 
isn't just a no-op in terms of what programmers do and that has direct 
relevance toward "accomplish things with computers."  At least it does 
for good programmers who care about their work.  Bad programmers who are 
stuck inside the mental boxes the languages they use surround themselves 
with (including Forth) don't care.  Possibly because they don't know 
enough to care.