From: Martin Rodgers
Subject: Re: "Programming is FUN again" rambling commentary
Date: 
Message-ID: <MPG.f707ebb71a8cb0989976@news.demon.co.uk>
Bill Coderre wheezed these wise words:

> None of this directly addresses FORTH being FUN, but I am guessing that
> FORTH is sort of the contrapositive (is that the right word?), in that you
> start at a low-level, and stay there. (Of course, my experience with FORTH
> is non-existent, so feel free to call me uninformed.)

What makes Forth fun, for me and most of the programmers I know who 
use (or have used) Forth, is the ease with which you can build new 
tools. Perhaps Leo Brodie's "Thinking Forth" is the Forth answer to 
Paul Graham's "On Lisp"?

There are many characterstics that we can use to distinguish families 
of languages, or entire classes. My favourite characteristic is the 
"one world" approach used by Lisp, Forth, Smalltalk, and no doubt many 
others (APL?). All interactive "one world" languages with incremental 
compilers appeal to me.

Curiously, I've never liked batch oriented Forth compilers, except for 
the meta compilers used to build Forth systems. Yep, another feature 
of these systems is that they can build themselves, just like in the 
last chapter of SICP. Some Forth systems even have fast load modules!

Now, meta compilers are serious fun. ;) Check out the Cassidy Forth 
meta compiler...
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