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From: toth@tellab5.tellabs.CHI.IL.US (Joseph G. Toth Jr.)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Mad Apple Forth
Keywords: Did I read the advertisement correctly?
Message-ID: <1249@tellab5.tellabs.CHI.IL.US>
Date: 12 Mar 89 05:43:13 GMT
Organization: Tellabs, Inc. Lisle, IL
Lines: 50

Boy, was I excited...

I read that a COMPILER was going to be posted to the net that actually ran
under ProDOS.  "FORTH"...  I waited expectantly, and went out and got a copy
of a FORTH programming guide.

I downloaded the files when they appeared...
I did the work to generate the executables...

I tried to run the thing...

Heavy disappointment..
This thing is not a compiler.  It is an interpreter...
Nor could I read the secondary disk. NOT A ProDOS DISK.

I mean, what is going on here.

And today I finally read that the secondary disk is in FORTH *BLOCK* format,
whatever that is.
Makes it awfully hard to use with a Hard Disk, doesn't it,
always having to insert the thing in a 5 1/4 inch drive in slot 6 drive 1
every time you want to use the prrograms, or even if you boot from that drive
when you don't have a hard disk (probably worse). I sure seems inflexible,
but then the forth language doesn't allow for drive or file selections, it
reads data in something called screens (something like a block of data,
kind of like a file (but not really).  Sound confusing?? It is to me, and
I've programmed in most languages around (a computer engineer, graduated
from UMR in 1975, and been using computers ever since).

And on top of that, the utility disk is missing a SAVE command.
Write a program, then quit the system. Whoops, gotta type it in again.

Question to the author...
When the SAVE is implemented, will each save also include the image of the
interpreter (as defined in the manual)???
Use up 21 (minimum) disk blocks for a 10 line program??
It is an overhead to every program to store unused functions.

These comments are not flames on the author of Mad Apple FORTH,
but on the FORTH system concept itself.

Meanwhile, I'll wait until we can either get HyperC up under ProDOS, or
improve it to the point that it is as good as (if not better than) what I
have heard about Appple Pascal (it may be good, but I'm not yet ready to
shell out > $200 for it) as far as hardware interfacing.

-- 
------------------------------------------------+---------------------
Maybe I shouldn't have done it, sarcasm is so   | Joseph G. Toth Jr.
seldom understood.  Don't FLAME on me, please.  | uunet!tellab5!toth