Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!nrl-cmf!ames!ubvax!smegma!mdg
From: mdg@smegma.UUCP (Marc de Groot)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth
Subject: Re: What's going on in the Forth world these days?
Keywords: Forth, new standards, etc.
Message-ID: <407@smegma.UUCP>
Date: 12 Jun 88 21:49:34 GMT
References: <425@hvrunix.UUCP>
Reply-To: mdg@smegma.UUCP (Marc de Groot)
Organization: A moving point in 4-space
Lines: 33

In article <425@hvrunix.UUCP> wpohl@hvrunix.UUCP (Walter E. Pohl) writes:
>     I was just wondering, what's going on in the Forth world these days?
>I haven't used Forth in a couple years, due to lack of access (I said to 
>myself, when I go to college, I bet they'll have a Forth implementation!
>Foolish me.).

Most computer science departments don't talk about Forth. The way I have heard
it, if Forth is to be found at a university, it is in the electrical
engineering department.

>     Are there any new standards since Forth-83?  Have there been any major changes?  Has Forth gained any kind of respectability in the computer world?  It
>seems you don't hear about it and how revolutionary it is as much any more.

The IEEE has a standards committee.  Perhaps someone who knows details will
post here on their progress.  Forth-83, to my knowledge, is the latest dialect
in wide use.

The latest thing in the Forth world that's exciting, in my opinion, is the
appearance of hardware Forth implementations.  They seem to differ from
other hardware language implementations in that the design of the silicon
reflects the elegance of Forth itself.  There are fewer gates for a given
level of functionality.

Two companies dealing in hardware Forth implementations are Novix, Inc. and
Harris Semiconductor.  Novix is in the silicon valley somewhere and Harris
is in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.


-- 
Marc de Groot (KG6KF)
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"smegma (smegma) n. 1. Progress, intelligently planned." -D. Dew