Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!ficc!peter From: peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth Subject: Re: Forth Popularity Message-ID: Date: 31 Dec 89 18:59:09 GMT References: <937@mtk.UUCP> <1JYB.5PZ.ggpc2@ficc.uu.net> <2470@cadovax.UUCP> Reply-To: peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) Distribution: usa Organization: Xenix Support, FICC Lines: 16 > >> A cheap Forth computer can do an end run around this attitude and I > >> think the world will better for it. > >It's been done. The Jupiter Ace, a Sinclair ZX-somethingorother with Forth > >instead of Basic. It was under $100. It went nowhere. > if there was not a great deal of available software, > these computers would have failed regardless of the language available. The Sinclair didn't fail. It was a vast (albeit short-lived) success. Everyone I know who was at all into computers and didn't already have one seemed to pick up one of these things. It was suceeded in this niche by the Commodore 64. Remember that sales gimmick? Turn in a Sinclair and get $50 off your C=64? Certainly Commodore took the Sinclair (or at least it's sales) seriously. -- `-_-' Peter da Silva. +1 713 274 5180. . 'U` Also or . "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