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From: ir230@sdcc6.ucsd.edu (john wavrik)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth
Subject: Spreading Forth
Message-ID: <14949@sdcc6.ucsd.edu>
Date: 14 Dec 90 16:39:58 GMT
Organization: University of California, San Diego
Lines: 47


Mitch Bradley writes,
# I have a tremendous amount of experience trying to "sell" Forth 
# to other people.  I have "sold" it to the world's leading 
# workstation vendor, an entrenched "C" shop.  As a result, there 
# are 100,000 more Forth interpreters than there were a year ago. 
 
Even though I use Forth because it is an excellent language for 
building medium-size customized systems in mathematics, I am 
always delighted to learn of applications of Forth in other 
areas. I am genuinely delighted to know that it is used in the 
boot prom of some of SUN's workstations. I also understand that 
it is used in the suspension system of Lincoln Continentals. I'm 
awaiting news from the JHU group to find out if I should brag 
about the use of Forth in the space telescopes.

My concern at the moment is with the spread of Forth as a 
programming language -- and I'm a bit confused by the evidence 
that is being presented.

Postscript, for example, is being presented as "popular". I've 
searched mail order catalogs for a version of Postscript as an 
independent programming language and have found none (I was able 
to find Forth). Is the fact that Postscript is used in a great 
many laser printers being taken as evidence of its popularity as a 
programming language? 

The fact that Forth is imbedded in the boot prom of 100,000 
workstations is a praiseworthy accomplishment. However, it seems 
to be being presented as evidence that Forth has been spread to 
100,000 new programmers. I must ask whether here, like 
Postscript, the presence of a language in a device is not being 
taken as evidence that people who own the device use the language 
for programming. Are instructional materials in the Forth 
language included? Is Forth being presented as a "primary 
language" available with SUN Workstations? Is it being supported 
as such? Do SUN Workstation users know that Forth is there? Do 
they know how to access it? IS THIS IS A COMPLETE STANDARD 
VERSION OF FORTH?  Would those who have a SUN workstation lab be 
able to use this Forth to teach a course in the language using 
current text books (e.g. Brodie or Kelly/Spies) -- or will they 
find words missing or altered? 
        
                                                  John J Wavrik 
             jjwavrik@ucsd.edu                    Dept of Math  C-012 
                                                  Univ of Calif - San Diego 
                                                  La Jolla, CA  92093