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From: koopman@a.gp.cs.cmu.edu (Philip Koopman)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth
Subject: Re: Thoughts on Forth (was: Why don't people use Forth...)
Summary: where's the frontier?
Message-ID: <7504@pt.cs.cmu.edu>
Date: 9 Jan 90 22:46:47 GMT
References: <756@noe.UUCP> <95.UUL1.3#5129@willett.UUCP> <3084@plains.UUCP> <231.UUL1.3#5129@willett.UUCP>
Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, CS/RI
Lines: 21

In article <231.UUL1.3#5129@willett.UUCP>, dwp@willett.UUCP (Doug Philips) writes:
> ....   I
> have an image of Forth programmers as backpacking trailblazers working
> diligently towards their own summits, stopping occasionally to get
> replacement supplies and swap stories of Bigfoot and UFO sitings. 
> ...  If
> Forth is declining in the few niches it has, perhaps it is because C's
> "bus route" has finally been put in, Ada's steamship now has a port of
> call.  If Forth is a frontierman's language, where is the frontier?

The frontier is small embedded systems, preferably those that do
time-critical control.  They are still predominately done in
assembler.  Now, through sheer inertia, C is moving in.  But,
Forth is really the way to go.  The question is, what do we do
before they turn the wilderness into a paved lot?

  Phil Koopman                koopman@greyhound.ece.cmu.edu   Arpanet
  2525A Wexford Run Rd.
  Wexford, PA  15090
Senior Scientist at Harris Semiconductor.
I don't speak for them, and they don't speak for me.