Okay, I'm through rubbing your collective noses in it...=20

In my experience, I always rolled my own Forth systems. They were always =
the sole occupant of any machine, which means they also did all the =
needed multitasking, I/O, interrupt handling, file I/O, and so on. I =
realize that times have changed somewhat now, and that Forth has been =
relegated to an application on a behemoth OS in many cases.

But the very notion of a "Forth Standard" has always stuck in my craw. =
And to this day, I seriously doubt that there really is any such thing. =
Forth excels at captive embedded systems, tiny processors, and such. I =
have used variations on Forth for more than 20 years, later called =
Tiller and FTiller, at Kaman Aerospace and Lawrence Livermore Labs. (and =
in heretical fashion, those had their kernels written in C or C++ at the =
time).

And in every case where I chose to use a Forth-like language we came out =
smelling like roses and heroes. The Lawrence Livermore Labs job was a =
weekend to demonstrate a 5-axis gimbaled telescope flying in a =
sea-launched balloon gondola to observe rocket plumes being launched =
from Vandenberg AFB. That code was whipped together, from kernel to =
running demo application in about 12 hours working all night the night =
we arrived in Livermore.

Forth has a very special place. And I won't ever forget it. But by =
whacking you between the eyes with the proverbial 2x4, I hope that you =
now see that the world is much larger than you imagined. Forth, given =
enough fortitude and determination, actually could be used to do any one =
of those systems. But most of us want more from life than to be a slave =
to constant reinvention.

- DM

On Jan 31, 2010, at 03:39 AM, David McClain wrote:

> ... and yes, I realize that SwiftForth does not *officially* run on OS =
X =3D
> yet... so just write it in a portable dialect of Forth so you can use =
=3D
> GForth on OS X...
>=20
> - DM
>=20
> On Jan 31, 2010, at 03:34 AM, David McClain wrote:
>=20
>> And BTW... don't overlook the requirement that it run on all of =3D
> Windows, =3D3D
>> OS X, and Linux... Ideally it should run on PPC and Pentium too, but =
=3D3D=3D
>=20
>> since PPC is on the wane, I'll overlook that for the challenge.
>> =3D20
>> - DM
>> =3D20
>> On Jan 31, 2010, at 03:25 AM, David McClain wrote:
>> =3D20
>>> ... but if you must ask... take a look at the first few slides on =
=3D3D3D=3D
>=20
>>> Butterfly, where it says it is a replacement of Erlang. Is Erlang a =
=3D
> =3D3D3D
>>> system? a language? a library? At any rate, if you can duplicate =3D
> what =3D3D
>> =3D3D3D
>>> Erlang provides, then you will be close enough in specification.
>>> =3D3D20
>>> - DM
>>> =3D3D20
>>> On Jan 31, 2010, at 03:19 AM, Marcel Hendrix wrote:
>>> =3D3D20
>>>> David McClain <dbm_at_refined-audiometrics.com> writes Re: generating =
=3D
> =3D3D3D
>>> self-contained dlls: sf or swiftx?
>>>> =3D3D3D20
>>>>> Okay, challenge on... Try any one of these in Forth:
>>>> =3D3D3D20
>>>>> http://weitz.de/eclm2009/
>>>> =3D3D3D20
>>>> I looked at Okeanos:
>>>> =3D3D3D20
>>>> Is that an application, a language, or a library?
>>>> Is there a formal specification of the language itself?
>>>> =3D3D3D20
>>>> Butterfly seems easier, but to my untrained eye it shows the=3D3D3D20=

>>>> same wild mix. Do you have a specification for its language part?
>>>> =3D3D3D20
>>>> -marcel
>>>> =3D3D3D20
>>>> =3D3D
>> =
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=3D3D
>> list
>>>> To unsubscribe, send subject "unsubscribe" to =3D3D
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>>>> =3D3D
>> =
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>>>> This list is a forum for SwiftForth users. For product support and
>>>> bug reports, please send email to support_at_forth.com
>>>> =3D3D
>> =
----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> =3D3D3D20
>>>> =3D3D3D20
>>> =3D3D20
>>> Dr. David McClain
>>> dbm_at_refined-audiometrics.com
>>> =3D3D20
>>> =3D3D20
>>> =3D3D20
>>> =3D
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> sftalk_at_forth.com The SwiftForth programming discussion email =3D
> list
>>> To unsubscribe, send subject "unsubscribe" to =3D
> sftalk-request_at_forth.com
>>> For list command help, send subject "help" to =3D
> sftalk-request_at_forth.com
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>>> =3D
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> This list is a forum for SwiftForth users. For product support and
>>> bug reports, please send email to support_at_forth.com
>>> =3D
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> =3D3D20
>>> =3D3D20
>> =3D20
>> Dr. David McClain
>> dbm_at_refined-audiometrics.com
>> =3D20
>> =3D20
>> =3D20
>> =
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>> sftalk_at_forth.com The SwiftForth programming discussion email =
list
>> To unsubscribe, send subject "unsubscribe" to =
sftalk-request_at_forth.com
>> For list command help, send subject "help" to =
sftalk-request_at_forth.com
>> Message archives are located at http://www.forth.com/archive/sftalk
>> =
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>> This list is a forum for SwiftForth users. For product support and
>> bug reports, please send email to support_at_forth.com
>> =
----------------------------------------------------------------------
>> =3D20
>> =3D20
>=20
> Dr. David McClain
> dbm_at_refined-audiometrics.com
>=20
>=20
>=20
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> sftalk_at_forth.com The SwiftForth programming discussion email list
> To unsubscribe, send subject "unsubscribe" to sftalk-request_at_forth.com
> For list command help, send subject "help" to sftalk-request_at_forth.com
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> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> This list is a forum for SwiftForth users. For product support and
> bug reports, please send email to support_at_forth.com
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>=20
>=20

Dr. David McClain
dbm_at_refined-audiometrics.com

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Received on Sun Jan 31 2010 - 02:59:58 PST