Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!ucsd!ucbvax!PENNDRLS.BITNET!DAVID
From: DAVID@PENNDRLS.BITNET
Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth
Subject: RE: Thinking FORTH
Message-ID: <9009192000.AA06542@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 19 Sep 90 19:56:29 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: DAVID%PENNDRLS.BITNET@SCFVM.GSFC.NASA.GOV
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I loved Thinking Forth when I first read it, and it changed my
(programming) life forever.  But I agree with Mitch, there is a bunch of
stuff in there justifying things FORTH does that I simply don't agree
with.  Nevertheless, it shook me out of my complacency about my
programming methods, made me figure out *why* I did what I did, and
encouraged me to find new ways that were better (and some of my 'new
improved' techniques I did take almost whole cloth from the book).  I
guess my recommendation about the book is read it, absorb it, think
about it, but *don't* use it as a bible.  More of a Gloss, remembering
that there are as many different glosses of the Bible as there are gloss
authors :-).  Thinking Forth is one of the best (possibly the best)
glosses on Forth, but there is always room for interpretation and
disagreement (as this list demonstrates almost daily!)

-- R. David Murray    (DAVID@PENNDRLS.BITNET, DAVID@PENNDRLS.UPENN.EDU)