Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!yale!cmcl2!acf5!sabbagh
From: sabbagh@acf5.NYU.EDU (sabbagh)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth
Subject: Re: Marketing Forth (was Re: Thoughts on Forth)
Message-ID: <1033@acf5.NYU.EDU>
Date: 19 Jan 90 15:37:44 GMT
References: <6224@sdcc6.ucsd.edu> <7636@pt.cs.cmu.edu>
Reply-To: sabbagh@acf5.UUCP ()
Organization: New York University
Lines: 59

In article <7636@pt.cs.cmu.edu> koopman@a.gp.cs.cmu.edu (Philip Koopman) writes:
>  1) No big successful projects have ever been done in Forth,
>     therefore it is no good (the Jerry Pournelle viewpoint).
>  2) No-one uses Forth, and I don't want to risk not being
>     able to get another programmer to maintain my code
>     (a typical software manager's viewpoint).
>
>I propose that we can correct those impressions by publishing
>hard technical articles about Forth projects that have
>been a success.

Amen.  Furthermore, we publish hard technical articles about Forth projects
OTHER THAN REAL TIME CONTROL.  I think there is a third point:

   3) The only people using Forth are real time control people.
     (My viewpoint).

Frankly, the group of people doing this kind of stuff is relatively 
cut off from the rest of the world.  You have the individual consultants
and small shops that produce the hardware and software, using Forth or
C or assembler.  The massive (read DoD) projects are being done in Ada.

Forth is eminently applicable to graphics, AI, database and information
management systems, word and text processing and a host of other
features.  Many of the technical articles on these applications are
buried in journals that only Forthies read, so most people don't get
the feeling that the are used for those kinds of applications.

Also needed are articles about how Forth was successfully used by
several people working on the same project at the same time, or,
conversely, how Forth allowed a single programmer to develop a
system that would have required much more effort in a different
language.

Finally, a tantalizing project proposal:  develop an operating system
to run on PCs and compatibles that runs MS-DOS programs and uses 
Forth as the shell/programming language.  Better still, develop
a Pick-like OS using Forth instead of RBASIC.  Any takers?


Hadil G. Sabbagh
E-mail:		sabbagh@csd27.nyu.edu
Voice:		(212) 998-3125
Snail:		Courant Institute of Math. Sci.
		251 Mercer St.
		New York,NY 10012

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