Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!lavaca.uh.edu!uhnix1!sugar!ficc!peter From: peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth Subject: Re: porting an MS-DOS Forth to a 386 Unix/Xenix Message-ID: <7199@ficc.uu.net> Date: 4 Dec 89 15:16:24 GMT References: <8912022006.AA02840@jade.berkeley.edu> Reply-To: peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) Organization: Xenix Support, FICC Lines: 41 In article <8912022006.AA02840@jade.berkeley.edu> Forth Interest Group International List writes: > > So...why SHOULD a commercial Forth vendor > > expect to be paid as much for his system as another vendor might > > charge for a C or Ada or Modula-2 compiler? > Because the commercial Forth vendor has to pay for his food, lodging, > office space, taxes, telephone, shipping, printing, and salaries at the > same rates as the commercial C vendor... So you're saying that Forth is at a competitive disadvantage with C. Isn't that what we're talking about in the first place... the shortage of good Forth implementations and why people expect Forth to be free? I'd no more pay for a Forth than I'd pay for a version of Make. Or for an assembler. Because I can do one myself in my own time, if I really need it. > C compilers used to cost thousands of dollars before C caught on and > the market expanded. But C had an advantage in the market: it was the only systems programming language large enough to compete and small enough to be implemented on the machines of the time. The competition was basically Pascal. Forth doesn't have an equivalent advantage, outside of a small group of hackers who mostly have the skills to do their own Forths if needed. > Remember what Unix documentation > used to be like up until about 5 years ago, before Unix "caught on"? > You got a line printer listing of the man pages, and you were lucky > if that was up-to-date. Actually, you got a troffed copy of the manual, and up-to-date copies on disk. The presentation wasn't first rate, but as a reference manual it was way better than most. And if anything it's gotten worse... it's not organised as well and the online manuals are gone. -- `-_-' Peter da Silva. +1 713 274 5180. . 'U` Also or . "If you want PL/I, you know where to find it." -- Dennis