4 ms·

Back around the time of OS/2 2.0, I was told you absolutely COULD NOT write OS/2 programs in assembler... so I wrote Forth/2 as a result.[1] Direct threaded na

Back around the time of OS/2 2.0, I was told you absolutely COULD NOT write OS/2 programs in assembler... so I wrote Forth/2 as a result.[1] Direct threaded native code. Brian Matthewson wrote a great manual for it, and it had more than 50 users at one point in time. It requires OS/2 2.0, but it can run on the text mode boot floppy. I've recently picked up a different Forth variant, and with some help for the HN community, got it to compile... then my retina detached and I've got to wait until I can see properly again to work on it. (It's really hard to program when you can't see more than a line or two at a time!) It's called mStoical,[2] and is a variant of the STOIC language, which is Forth, with type checking, strings, hash tables, dictionaries, and even regex. [1] - https://www.os2site.com/sw/dev/forth/forth040.zip [2] - https://github.com/mikewarot/mstoical

MichaelMoser123 4y ago
Wishing you a speedy recovery
jacquesm 4y ago
Oh that sucks, much good luck! As an aside: I wonder if there is anybody that used Forth but that never implemented it.
- Gordonjcp 4y ago
  I acquired a couple of computers from my dad's old work with Forth ROMs in them (Acorn Atom, Epson HX20) so presumably they wrote a data logging and analysis app in Forth without actually implementing Forth themselves.
  - jacquesm 4y ago
    You'd think the same thing if you looked at my professional Forth work, but that wouldn't make it true... The key is that implementing Forth is so ridiculously simple that you may as well do it as a training exercise. I even wrote one in C, appropriately titled 'the ultimate insult'.
    - rbanffy 4y ago
      In college undersigned a CPU that was initially register based but I figured out I could write a nice stack-based ISA for it and use registers for storage. It was very FORTH-like to program. It had a “verb” bit that told it whether that word was data (to be stacked) or an operation, to be done.
      - denton-scratch 4y ago
        There was a processor family called NOVIX, that was a hardware implementation of Forth - using a gate-array, I think. Nowadays I suppose you could put 128 Forth processors on a chip 1/10th the size of a modern microcontroller. I don't know why people don't build Forth hardware; it should be cheap, efficient, and fast.
- dtgriscom 4y ago
  I worked with a company that used the New Micros 68HC11s with embedded Forth. Used it to control CD players using IR codes, to play canned messages for museum exhibits. Lots of fun.

MichaelMoser123 4y ago

Wishing you a speedy recovery

jacquesm 4y ago

Oh that sucks, much good luck! As an aside: I wonder if there is anybody that used Forth but that never implemented it.

Gordonjcp 4y ago
I acquired a couple of computers from my dad's old work with Forth ROMs in them (Acorn Atom, Epson HX20) so presumably they wrote a data logging and analysis app in Forth without actually implementing Forth themselves.
- jacquesm 4y ago
  You'd think the same thing if you looked at my professional Forth work, but that wouldn't make it true... The key is that implementing Forth is so ridiculously simple that you may as well do it as a training exercise. I even wrote one in C, appropriately titled 'the ultimate insult'.
  - rbanffy 4y ago
    In college undersigned a CPU that was initially register based but I figured out I could write a nice stack-based ISA for it and use registers for storage. It was very FORTH-like to program. It had a “verb” bit that told it whether that word was data (to be stacked) or an operation, to be done.
    - denton-scratch 4y ago
      There was a processor family called NOVIX, that was a hardware implementation of Forth - using a gate-array, I think. Nowadays I suppose you could put 128 Forth processors on a chip 1/10th the size of a modern microcontroller. I don't know why people don't build Forth hardware; it should be cheap, efficient, and fast.
dtgriscom 4y ago
I worked with a company that used the New Micros 68HC11s with embedded Forth. Used it to control CD players using IR codes, to play canned messages for museum exhibits. Lots of fun.