Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!isis!jwoehr
From: jwoehr@isis.cs.du.edu (Jack J. Woehr)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth
Subject: Re: ANS FORTH TECHNICAL COMMITTEE
Summary: Jes' Tryin' to Figger Out This Jigsaw Puzzle Before It Rains Anymore
Keywords: ANS Forth
Message-ID: <1990Dec19.033916.4899@isis.cs.du.edu>
Date: 19 Dec 90 03:39:16 GMT
References: <1990Dec15.063653.20548@world.std.com> <1990Dec18.061629.17086@world.std.com>
Reply-To: jwoehr@isis.UUCP (Jack J. Woehr)
Organization: Math/CS, University of Denver
Lines: 35

In article <1990Dec18.061629.17086@world.std.com> dcp@world.std.com (David C. Petty) writes:

	... <stuff> ..

>application is, bluntly:  Keep it simple.  A simple solution has elegance.  It 
>is the result of exacting effort to understand the real problem and is 
>recognized by its compelling sense of rightness.  I stress this point, because 
>it contradicts the conventional view that power increases with complexity.  
>Simplicity provides confidence, reliability, compactness, and speed.''  

	David, the problem seems to have become: What is the minimal Forth
in which it is possible to write a large body of Standard programs that are
portable across the range of processing units from microcontrollers to
mainframes?

	The answer is, if you can shake down the jigsaw puzzle any more tightly
than X3J14 is doing, more power to you.

	Once again, the Forth police will *not* be knocking on your door in
the middle of the night to make sure you use ANS Forth. It's just there so
that you have something to peddle to your customers when they demand A TRULY
PORTABLE FORTH that allows them to address MODERN COMPUTER PROBLEMS like file
access, external mem allocs, etc. IN A TRULY PORTABLE MANNER, eg., portable
between, oh, say PICK and VAX/VMS.

	At home, I will do what I have always done: use 15 different Forths
depending on what I want to do at the moment! But you can bet I will $ELL
AN$ Forth $y$tem$.


-- 
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