Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 (Tek) 9/28/84 based on 9/17/84; site tekchips.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!tekcrl!tekchips!toma From: toma@tekchips.UUCP (Tom Almy) Newsgroups: net.lang.forth Subject: Re: FIGIL DIGEST Message-ID: <338@tekchips.UUCP> Date: Mon, 4-Nov-85 11:05:12 EST Article-I.D.: tekchips.338 Posted: Mon Nov 4 11:05:12 1985 Date-Received: Thu, 7-Nov-85 03:45:06 EST References: <8510110938.AA09626@UCB-VAX.ARPA> <8510211813.AA09575@UCB-VAX> <603@baylor.UUCP> Reply-To: toma@tekchips.UUCP (Tom Almy) Organization: Tektronix, Beaverton OR Lines: 29 Summary: In article <603@baylor.UUCP> peter@baylor.UUCP (Peter da Silva) writes: >> I would suggest polyForth from Forth, Inc as a professional, consistent, >> and well-documented implementation of the language for the IBM-PC. I have >> several years of experience using various Forths in different projects > >So have I, and PolyForth fails badly in one important respect: > > THE DEVELOPMENT SYSTEM DOES NOT RUN UNDER MS-DOS. > According to their latest price sheet they have seen the error of their ways. There is now a generic MS-DOS version. There is also a standalone version that used IBM ROM BIOS calls (the original version bypassed the BIOS and would not run on my otherwise PC Clone). Personally, I don't like several things about polyForth -- they seem to be very nonstandard (funny vocabulary implementation, screwball assembler), and their documentation is hard to follow. The system is so minimal that error messages are indecipherable and the user interface is fairly unfriendly. Theirs is the only Forth I have seen where if you type in a colon definition that is more than one line long, you have to put a "]" at the start of each additional line. They also don't provide a WORDS or VLIST word. I have been very satisfied using Laboratory Microsystems Forths, but I should point out some bias in that I have some products (native code compilers) sold by them. But then the reason that I have given them my compilers to sell is that I had been a satisfied customer. Tom Almy