Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!lll-winken!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!casbah.acns.nwu.edu!ucsd!sdcc6!ir230
From: ir230@sdcc6.ucsd.edu (john wavrik)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth
Subject: FIG-Forth
Message-ID: <18550@sdcc6.ucsd.edu>
Date: 23 Apr 91 00:54:06 GMT
Organization: University of California, San Diego
Lines: 47


                         FIG-Forth

> Summary:  ANS Forth did not cause the "evaporation" of the FIG
> model. It simply faced up to the reality that said model is already 
> gone.

In a recent article I questioned the clarity of the current state of 
the proposed ANSI Standard. I raised issues about portability and 
power. I tried to pinpoint present deficiencies and make suggestions 
for improvement. I gave some specific examples of how depriving words 
of meaning (semantics in the true sense) or fuzzing the meaning of 
words will lead to a decrease in both power and portability.

Nowhere in this article was FIG-Forth mentioned. The thrust of the 
article was that Forth depends on a clear meaning for its words. 
Since, however, FIG-Forth has been mentioned in a return posting, let 
me ask something that I have always found puzzling.

FIG-Forth has always meant to me the following qualities:

     (1)  A high degree of portability
     (2)  Great power and control over the language
     (3)  Great acceptance and availability

The FIG model was intended (and realized) as a basis for commercial 
implementations of Forth and, during its era, it did form the basis 
of both commercial and public domain implementations of the language. 
It was responsible for a public perception that Forth allowed users 
to do extraordinarily powerful things -- and, in most cases, port-
ably.

I have come to find out (only recently) that FIG-Forth has negative 
connotations for some members of the ANSI team -- and I am at a loss 
to understand which of the above characteristics are found objection-
able.

To set the record straight:  I do not program in FIG-Forth. I do, 
however, regard the above three qualities as timeless and achievable.

"If we open a quarrel between the past and the present,
 we shall find that we have lost the future."  -- Winston Churchill

                                            John J Wavrik 
       jjwavrik@ucsd.edu                    Dept of Math  C-012 
                                            Univ of Calif - San Diego 
                                            La Jolla, CA  92093