5 - Forth Interest Group

Figure Nine. I
\ 0OFNEWST.FTH 910818 rwb
\ MESSAGE r> head +!
else
abort" Stack Empty!"
then ;
dard, and became a de fmto
standard itself.
The question is really
whether the ANS standard
will be an attractive proposi-
tion to users and implement-
ors. I should think it might
be, given the background
and caliber of people work-
ing on the committee. I am
going to try to obtain a dpANS
document whenever it be-
comes available to the gen-
eral public.
From: John Wavrik
Subject: Traditional Forth
Elizabeth Rather writes,
"Traditional Forth, for
example, allows the user
to know and make use of
knowledge of what is
'compiled' (or, more ac-
curately, assembled)--
and to exercise total con-
trol over the process.
"Hogwash! What on earth
is this 'traditional Forth,'
and what did it 'compile
or assemble'? Did it as-
semble the same thing on
a 6502 as it did on a PDP-
11? If so, how did it run?
And if not, how could the
user 'know and make use
of' that knowledge in a
transportable fashion?'"
To describe what I call
traditional Forth, perhaps it
would be wise to repeat the
major texts I have used in
teaching Forth (I am not going
back to Kitt Peak Primer
and the various manuals,
Forth Dimensions articles,
etc. that I used to actually
learn the languagejust the
printed works that I feel describe
what I am calling traditional
Forth):
1. Starting ForCh by Leo
Brodie (published by
Forth, Inc!!!)
2. minking Forth by Leo
Brodie
3. Forth: A Tm and Reference
by Kelly & Spies
I should also list the sys-
tems I have used over the
years, all ofwhich have been
reasonably consistent with
the description of Forth given
Forth Dimensions 3 1 January 1992 February