[A92] Re: Forth
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[A92] Re: Forth
Aaron Fineman wrote:
> whats FORTH? is that another language?
Yes, Forth is a programming language that is especially well suited to
small systems. Though I don't have any experience in it yet, I've talked
about it at great length with my housemate, who uses it extensively for
embedded systems. Forth is a low level language not far removed from
assembly. In fact, there is usually an assembler that's part of the
Forth environment, seemlessly integrated with the rest of the system.
However, Forth also has constructs to facilitate programming in a
structured, high level fashion. Some people even write object systems
and GUI's in Forth. Even better, you can extend the syntax in the
language itself to define new control structures and abstract data types.
Forth is a very niche language, with a small and sometimes cloistered
community. It is very strange to most programmers, so it doesn't tend to
attract a lot of users. The syntax is very different from most
languages, as it's extremely free form and postfix (RPN). Almost
everything in Forth involves stack operations instead of operations on
variables. Although I can't yet speak from experience, my housemate said
it took him several years to really get into Forth just because it
requires such a different way of thinking from most languages. However,
he said that it has made him a better programmer in general, even in
languages like C because Forth forces one to factor mercilessly.
Forth provides an interactive interpreter which allows one to enter
code, defining words (Forth equivalent of functions) and testing them
interactively. Some Forths also have optimizing compilers that produce
native code.
The Forth Interest Group (http://www.forth.org/) is a good source of
information.
Jonathan Rogers
References: