Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!att!cbnewsd!bird
From: bird@cbnewsd.ATT.COM (j.l.walters)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: What languages do you want.
Message-ID: <1153@cbnewsd.ATT.COM>
Date: 15 Aug 89 01:26:48 GMT
References: <8908111748.AA01529@trout.nosc.mil>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 34

From article <8908111748.AA01529@trout.nosc.mil>, by lexter@pro-abilink.cts.com (Sam Robertson):
> Network Comment: to #6251 by obsolete!att!cbnewsd!bird%ucbvax.berkeley.edu 
> 
> Is there an Apple Market for such a language.

Yes, however, not in the same sense as C, Fortran, Cobol, etc.

> I just wonder what applications can be best written in Forth?
> Is it better than PASCAL in the sense of teaching beginners?  Is
> it structured?  Is it commonly used in the REAL world? 
> 
Any application that can be written in any other language. With
Forth, the executition speed will be faster than most of the above
and the object size will "always" be much less.

Answering the question as to whether this language is better than
that language is never fruitful. Forth does tend to teach one to
"think small" and not waste resources. It is much like Pascal in
that before a Forth word can be incorporated in another, it must
already be defined. It reuses code like no other higher level
language I've ever seen.

As to whether it is structured, if you mean, "does it require
indentation and almost always semicolons?" The answer is, "no." If
you mean, "does it espouse a methodology where the intent of the
design can be imparted to another?" then the answer is, "yes."

One example in the real world I know of is the popular IIgs
program, "Math Blaster."


-- 
				Joe Walters att!ihlpf!bird   
				IHP 1F-240 (312) 713-5356