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From: carroll@s.cs.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth
Subject: Re: Forth Programs (was Forth learn
Message-ID: <207800003@s.cs.uiuc.edu>
Date: 29 Dec 89 15:48:00 GMT
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Nf-From: s.cs.uiuc.edu!carroll    Dec 29 09:48:00 1989


/* Written  9:47 am  Dec 27, 1989 by marc@noe.UUCP in s.cs.uiuc.edu:comp.lang.forth */
/* ---------- "Re: Forth Programs (was Forth learn" ---------- */
>"It was just dumb luck that Unix managed to break through the Stupidity Barrier
>and become popular in spite of its inherent elegance." -- gavin@krypton.sgi.com

Which elegance are you talking about?  The elegance which requires > 1 Meg of
RAM to run with any performance?  Or the elegance which eats 30% of the CPU
cycles?  ;-)
-- 
/* End of text from s.cs.uiuc.edu:comp.lang.forth */
Well, the UNIX about which that comment was made was probably the original
PDP-11 lean&mean version. In the early days, UNIX was to the current OS's as
Forth is to current langauges now. The elegance of the "everything is a file"
metaphor is one part of the overall elegance. Unfortunately, what we have
today is the result of the degenerative disease "creeping featurism". If
you want to talk about FORTH as way of programming as opposed to a language
per se, then one could talk about UNIX as a way of building OS's that
speaks of unity of design, orthogonality, and user power. The problems you
site come from losing sight of this.

P.S. I like UNIX, and I like Forth.