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General Forums => The Campus => Topic started by: TmX on November 12, 2009, 04:20:27 PM

Title: Learning the Forth language
Post by: TmX on November 12, 2009, 04:20:27 PM
Recently, I stumbled upon this article:
http://www.embedded.com/story/OEG20010731S0028

I am not interesting in the language bashing, but on the advantages mention there: short code, interactive nature, etc.

Maybe somebody on this board have some experiences with this language?

Forth looks like an oddball to me, and it's not popular anymore, but for an unclear reason I'm interested on learning it.

:toothy
Title: Re: Learning the Forth language
Post by: dedndave on November 12, 2009, 04:44:26 PM
forth is an interesting language
but, not because of mere syntax
what makes it interesting is that it is based on an "imperative" programming paradigm
i have played around a little bit applying some of the same principles with assembler
it's a little bit clumsey when working with the windows API
it makes it hard to realize any speed advantages
but, imperative programming still has a place in non-API functions

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperative_programming
Title: Re: Learning the Forth language
Post by: FORTRANS on November 12, 2009, 06:08:17 PM
Hi,

   I have looked at Forth many times, and tried it out a few.  The
article seems to be okay in what it says.  I imagine any poorly
documented and commented language is hard to follow, but Forth
has a somewhat different paradigm as well.  I never had any real
use/need for it, so never put in the effort to get familiar with using
it.  I imagine that those that use it productively could easily be
rabid fans.  I program in PostScript, and in some respects it is a
language similar to Forth.  And I like it reasonably well by now.

   In an analogy, if you like algebraic calculators and hate the RPN
ones, you probably won't like Forth.  If you like RPN, then Forth
and PostScript may be likable.

Regards,

Steve N.