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From: wmb@sun.uucp (Mitch Bradley)
Newsgroups: net.lang.forth
Subject: FIG forth - a very brief history
Message-ID: <1129@sun.uucp>
Date: Mon, 21-May-84 01:50:15 EDT
Article-I.D.: sun.1129
Posted: Mon May 21 01:50:15 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 22-May-84 07:35:58 EDT
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Lines: 27

FigForth is a set of extremely-similar, very compatible Forth implementations
for a number of micros.  It was done by the very early members of the
Forth Interest Group and was placed in the public domain, in order that
the hobbyist community at large could have access to reasonable Forth
implementations.  This was a very noble effort, and was quite successful.

The fig implementation has served as the model for a lot of Forth
implementations since then.  The term "fig forth" is now often used to
mean any forth implementation which is based on the original public-domain
implementations or which is compatible with the Forth dialect used by those
implementations.

Vanilla fig forth is pretty primitive by today's standards.  The latest Forth
standard is Forth 83, for which an excellent public domain implementation
exists.  The implementation is called F83.  It is available for the 8080,
the 8086, and the 68000, all under CP/M.  The 8080 and 8086 versions are
in the Simtel-20 archives on the ARPANET.  All versions are available on
disk for $25 each from No Visible Support Software, P.O. Box 1344, 2000
Center Street, Berkeley, CA 94704.  An Apple II version is available
(with support) for $100 from MicroMotion, 12077 Wilshire Blvd., Ste. 506,
Los Angeles, CA 90025.  MicroMotion also has a book describing the F83
dialect, "Forth Tools", for $20.

May the Forth be with you,
Mitch Bradley
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
sun!wmb