Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!hplabs!well!jax
From: jax@well.UUCP (Jack J. Woehr)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth
Subject: Re: Infix operators
Summary: Jax programs controllers in Forth, exlcusive Orr! :-)
Keywords: Parallel, controllers
Message-ID: <6951@well.UUCP>
Date: 28 Aug 88 01:02:24 GMT
References: <8808121826.AA23206@jade.berkeley.edu> <1575@crete.cs.glasgow.ac.uk> <6882@well.UUCP> <1581@crete.cs.glasgow.ac.uk>
Reply-To: jax@well.UUCP (Jack J. Woehr)
Organization: Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, Sausalito, CA
Lines: 43

In article <1581@crete.cs.glasgow.ac.uk> orr@cs.glasgow.ac.uk (Fraser Orr) writes:
>In article <6882@well.UUCP> jax@well.UUCP (Jack J. Woehr) writes:
>>	As of 1988, it looks like Forth is taking the embedded control
>>industry by storm. Reasons: tiny, complete programming environment;
>>ease of translation of concept to reality; body of talented, well-trained
>>Forth programmers to do the job; amazing power of Forth-oriented microchips
>>like the Zilog Super8 and the Harris RTX.
>>
>Jack, are you suggesting that because "industry has taken it
>by storm", that it is necessarily the best (or even appropriate)? If so,
>do you also support COBOL as the best for buisness work, or Fortran for
>sientific work (yes, I know all the arguments about software libraries
>etc, but that's not the point, we're discussing what is the most appropriate
>medium to express your ideas is).
>
>I think though my statment was perhaps too strong though. I don't
>really know how good forth is for this kind of work, since I have
>never done such programming in forth. 

	Frase, I write control apps for a living. In Forth. Sometimes
two a day.

	My boss hates Forth, but he can't find a language other than
Forth that is so productive. He wrings his hands, then he tells
the client, "Well, actually, if we do it in Forth, we can take $8,000
off the development costs ..."

	You would be surprised how convincing an argument that is over
here in the Land of the Almighty Dollar!

	Forth, being its own op system, interactive, and fully featured
in a memory model that corresponds to controller apps, is *the* language
for real time control.

	As a matter of fact, if you have not yet heard, the annual
Forth Interest Group convention has been renamed the Real Time Programming
convention.

	Yes, Forth has found a niche at last!

*************************
jax@well
jax@chariot	"Repent! Reboot!"
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