Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!apple!bionet!ames!pacbell!noe!marc From: marc@noe.UUCP (Marc de Groot) Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth Subject: Re: Forth Programs (was Forth learning curve) Message-ID: <737@noe.UUCP> Date: 22 Dec 89 08:33:21 GMT References: <798@mindlink.UUCP> <735@noe.UUCP> <7355@ficc.uu.net> Sender: usenet@noe.UUCP Reply-To: marc@noe.UUCP (Marc de Groot) Organization: Noe Systems, San Francisco Lines: 38 In article <7355@ficc.uu.net> peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) writes: >In article <735@noe.UUCP> marc@noe.UUCP (Marc de Groot) writes: >> If Forth had been handed to a bunch of hyperactive hackers at UC Berkeley >> in 1978 or thereabouts... > >Sorry to burst your bubble. Marc, but it was. At least there were Forth >systems floating around Berkeley in 1979, when I got there. >-- >`-_-' Peter da Silva. +1 713 274 5180. . > 'U` Also or . Sorry to burst YOUR bubble, Peter, but I LIVED in Berkeley in 1979 (and through 1987) and I used the PDP-11 Forth on UNIX "D" at Berkeley, and I have been hanging out with the hackers who work in Evans Hall since 1984. They didn't even KNOW there was a Forth for their machines, much less care. They all will tell you that Forth sucks, but *very* few of them have even seen it. You can't be a member of the Big Hacker Club at UCB unless you're a Unix bigot -- it was partly peer pressure that drove me to work at Microport to find out what these people were so excited about. Needless to say, I've now worked both sides of the C/Forth fence, and I *still* consider Forth to be the best way to deal with a computer. Especially after being told by my boss at Microport that you can't get anything done in a single day with a computer. Perhaps my original comment was poorly phrased, but I stand by what I *meant*, which is that if Unix and C hadn't been there and Forth had been the only thing around, we'd have a "real cool" OS written in Forth. We'd perhaps also have more hackers there who understand the difference between unreadability and illiteracy. :-) -- Marc de Groot (KG6KF) |"...few people know what to do with a computer. Noe Systems, San Francisco | They decide that running an operating system UUCP: uunet!hoptoad!noe!marc | is a substitute for doing productive work." Internet: marc@kg6kf.AMPR.ORG | -Chuck Moore