Path: utzoo!mnetor!tmsoft!dptcdc!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!agate!ucbvax!SUN.COM!wmb From: wmb@SUN.COM (Mitch Bradley) Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth Subject: Re: FORTH, the language Message-ID: <8907251409.AA17215@jade.berkeley.edu> Date: 24 Jul 89 17:28:38 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Reply-To: Forth Interest Group International List Organization: The Internet Lines: 38 > Wasn't Moore pushing the radical idea of not keeping ANY source > code around and using a fancy decompiler? This stuff sounds > like the output of a cheap decompiler. 3 points: a) The sourceless program idea was originally (I think) proposed by Bob Buege (sp?) who had developed a language called "RTL", for Relocatable Threaded Language. It was basically a token-threaded Forth, with a few extra flag bits in the header to give the decompiler extra hints. I think he may have compiled comments into the code too, skipping around them at run time. Chuck liked the idea. b) Chuck tends to push a new radical idea every few months or so. Most of them are dumb and he eventually changes his mind; a few are very good. That is the way with most extremely-creative people, in my experience. Bill Joy (the Unix prophet) is the same way. (in comparison, most of the rest of us never even HAVE any radical ideas). Some examples of things that Chuck has pushed in the last few years: 1) Using a time delay instead of the RETURN key 2) Typing on a 5-finger keyboard, where you just type in the binary value for the ASCII keyboard (the high bits are "sticky" somehow). 3) Using Morse Code instead of keyboards. 4) A three-finger keyboard built from a cut-up business card. The keys are labeled red, green, and blue, and you can type 7 different combinations, which select color-coded menu items displayed in (you guessed it!) red, green, blue, yellow, cyan, magenta, and white c) Actually, I don't think Chuck's square, comment-free style is related to the sourceless thing. I think it's because Chuck is a free spirit, doesn't care what other people think about his code anyway, and doesn't intend to reuse it because he would just as soon rewrite it the next time he needs anything similar. Rewriting it gives him the opportunity to try out his latest idea or technique on that bit of code too. Brilliant people play by different rules. Mitch (amateur psychologist) Bradley