5 - Forth Interest Group

FORTH IN PRINT
THE TAYLOR REPORT/Alan Taylor
-.--
Alternative Software
Making Great St rides
Imagine i;ab,ing your c’rcn private
Cobol coml’lier -- with speclai security
!eatc-es ar.d your user application
statement. - that you could develop
and keep runnlng on your future as
Hell as iur,ent hardware That would
Lje a change tndeed for any user, and as
! el it is sti:l ju:t a dream But there ap-
pear to be nd technical rei1so115 and few
practical reawns to eipeit that such a
tompJer won’t bp generally available
in a ;;ear or two
The Forth Interest Group’s (FIG) re-
cent conference showed continued
breakthroughs in really opening up
saftware capabilities to users on at
least SIX dictinct fronts - hardware,
languages, environments, cross-
compiling. research targets and user
trainir.g. This, only a year after the
publication of the first FIG models of
the Forth language, showed how some
basic k.nowledge tan bear fruit.
The power behind these and other
dwelopments has been a growing in-
trrnational group of people and firms.
Headed by Chuck Moore’s own Forth,
Inc., independent user groups in
America, Europe and Japrn who ap-
preciated the power of Forth have re-
sulted in small commercial ventures
with Forth compilers on micros. (The
leader here, with more than 100 user
groups of its own, is Miller MiCrosys-
terns, 1ocitc.d just a mile from
Computerworld’s headquarters!)
From this base of people. FIG is able
to produce a technical journal, Forth
Dimensiorts, which is iinprovinx all
the tirnc.
Since Forth is extendahle -- thilt is
any user car. add new stater?t.:i!i (ei-
thcr becaijse the languagc is hLt)ioiin&
inore appreciated or else brc.a:iw the
particular application or ins!.ill:~:or.
wants a different vocabtildryr tht
journal’s emphasis i-; or. cornraring
different methods cf :mpI~~~;mt:iip
language elements. This d!t~lw5
the community to see how to LtLF the
language efficient.
The journal also promote tht- tun-
tinxed development oi the Forth 3!nn-
dard, annual conferences, and gerieral
communic~tion anlong thc rri.iny
groups.
All this, however, is only as inlpor-
tant as what IS actually m;dr wit‘i the
FIG Forths. And that wls wh:. the
1960 confrreirce was particaIitr!> im-
portant.
Outside LurguaGe
Forth, before now, nail an o:it-:de
language which, wililrr soma. v$+t? t
Pascal-like, was distinctly forb a:.is:-t!:
and, because ot the rareiitcs ot kor!!i
programmers, something thdt ust Ts
hated to use.
However, other more poptila. ..vd
coni*entiona! languages iriclud 7:. i’,i--
cal, Lisp, Bask and (poter.tiall),t Ci:iu!
can be written in Forth, thu3 reli,.i+:-.g
the rmployment problem, wh:le .d.j.
ing for their users the cxttntl:n,. i: ’:
(Continued cn Pqc L I)
FIGFORTH, TOO
If you have had a long wait for delivery of an order from the FORTH
Interest Croup (again in October €3’9 “Data Files”), it may be the post
office’s fault. I, too, ordered copies of the figFORTH manuals and source
code for FORTH. It took 22 days for our su er-efficient postal service to
deliver my copies. Also received from the FORTH Interest Group were
copies of FORTH Dimensions, its bimonthly publication. The Septem-
berJ’October 1980 issue, larger than normal with over 90 pages. Was
professionaliy prepared and made good reading. The reason for this
extra-size issue (regular issues seem to run about 35 pages) was publica-
tion of the source code for entries in a “CASE” statement contest.
FORTH Dimensions is sent as part of membership in the FORTH Inter-
est Group. The current membership cost is $12 per year in the US. and
Canada, and $1 5 per year oversea.
FORTH DIMENSIONS II/5
RENEW NOW!
Forth for Alpha
Micro’s AMOS
RENEW TODAY!
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