Re: Reading the (fine) manual

I encourage you to restart DFW-FIG. I don't think it would be a
"chapter" of anything. Although it was never formally or legally
disbanded, I believe we can consider FIG to have disintegrated. The
term "deresed" from the movie 'Tron' comes to mind.

May I ask you consider coming to Forth Day in Sunnyvale, CA in November
and telling us about your adventures? If you don't care to travel,
perhaps make a short video.

As far as dabbling, the price is right on the demo version of
Swift-Forth.
You can register here to request it -->
http://www.forth.com/swiftforth/forth-language-trial.html
I have the expectation that you'll be found worthy.

-----Original Message-----
From: swiftx-bounce_at_forth.com [mailto:swiftx-bounce_at_forth.com]On Behalf
Of Harkness, Howard
Sent: Friday, July 15, 2005 8:21 AM
To: 'swiftx_at_forth.com'
Subject: [swiftx] Re: Reading the (fine) manual

I have read through it several times now (as well as the SwiftForth
Handbook), and will probably re-read it on a weekly basis until the
current
contract is over. I also refer to it nearly every day for something.
There
is enough material there that I can't absorb it all on just one pass.
Maybe
I'm just slow, but I think that I would have to slog out this full-time
for
six months or more before I would be comfortable regarding myself as a
SwiftXpert.

After the 26th of August, I will be a C++ programmer again (I *am* a C++
expert, having taught advanced C++ courses for over 10 years now), so
the
SwiftX questions I have now will become moot after that time. I do not
anticipate having enough side-work after August 26th to justify the
purchase
of SwiftForth or SwiftX, so any Forth dabbling that I do will be with
freeware or open-source tools such as Win23Forth, and I don't forsee the
opportunity to do any embedded systems work at all. In fact, I am
planning
to devote my non-job time to my musical hobby/business
(http://www.celtic-fiddler.com), and not programming. I'm currently
selling
an average of one violin per week; if I can get that to about 15-20 per
week, I wouldn't need to work as a programmer.

That's not to say I don't enjoy programming -- the contract I'm on right
now
is the most enjoyable work I've had in several years. However, with the
current situation, it's just getting too hard to find suitable work in
the
Dallas area (and AFAICT, there is no SwiftX being used anywhere in the
DFW
area, which is why I'm returning to C++; I want to move back home). In
memory of my departed friend and DFW-FIG founder, Clif Penn, I may
resurrect
the DFW FIG chapter with the remaining 4 members, as a monthly social
gathering at my house.

Howard Lee Harkness, Contractor

-----Original Message-----
From: swiftx-bounce_at_forth.com [mailto:swiftx-bounce_at_forth.com] On Behalf
Of
Ron Oliver
Sent: Friday, July 15, 2005 9:47 AM
To: swiftx_at_forth.com
Subject: [swiftx] Re: SWOOP vs. SwiftX

On Thu, 14 Jul 2005, Elizabeth D Rather wrote:

> SwiftX employs a sort of meta-vocabulary called "scope" that specifies

> a search order and various other things. SwiftX scopes are described
> in the SwiftX Reference Manual (another pdf). This is an important
> concept to master if you're working with SwiftX.

Howard (or any SwiftX user, for that matter,) you should read the SwiftX
Reference Manual cover to cover. Resist the urge to skim it. You'll
know a
lot of it already, but you won't know it all, and it really is an
excellent
reference manual. If you don't *really* understand this stuff, you
won't
get the most out of SwiftX; you'll end up doing things the hard way
because
you don't understand the easy way. It's well worth the investment of
time
for both you and your employer.

SwiftX provides a solid Forth cross-development environment. Your time
will
be better spent understanding the framework (via the SwiftX manual) than
slogging through the cross-compiler source. If you first understand the
framework from the manual, then the implementation details in the source
will make much more sense.

--
Ron Oliver <roliver_at_openesque.com>
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