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It's a high level language compared to Assembler. Like a lot of those early experimental languages it's worth learning a bit. It's also a pretty much complete
by smackeyacky 3y ago
It's a high level language compared to Assembler. Like a lot of those early experimental languages it's worth learning a bit. It's also a pretty much complete failure other than a few standout uses (the main one I can think of is that the boot loader on Sun SPARC machines was written in Forth).
To me it fits in an odd place. It was much hyped/replicated on Micros in the 1980s as it made the Basic implementations on those machines seem very old fashioned. For most users who were already working on minicomputers in languages like C or Lisp, Forth was just a weird riff on stack based languages that had already been considered and discarded. So the general impression on whether Forth was any good or not depended entirely on what else you had programmed in.
Having said that, stack based languages like Forth, PostScript or even xslt are challenging and thought provoking.
Personally, if I wanted to play with a stack based language I'd play with PostScript or xslt as at least you'd have half a chance to use it professionally.
edit: yeah xslt isn't a stack based language but I always thought it helped when learning it to consider it that way
- tombert 3y agoI've wanted to write some retro computer games for awhile, but I really hate mucking with Assembly language. It would be cool to have something faster than BASIC but higher level than raw assembly.
- smackeyacky 3y agoDepending on which platform interests you it might or might not be avaialable. A quick search for the Commodore 64 brings up a lot of info: https://www.c64-wiki.com/wiki/Forth https://www.c64-wiki.com/wiki/Forth Seems like there might be good hardware support for Forth on the C64
- mech422 3y agoThere was a really neat looking FORTH for the C64 focused on game programming: White Lightning[0]. oh - it runs on Zx80 too... I always wanted to play with it as a kid, but never got around to it :-/ 0: https://www.forth.org/lightning.html https://www.forth.org/lightning.html
- 7thaccount 3y agoThere are new versions of the classical 80s computers such as the Commander X16, Zx Spectrum Next, and C65. They're pricey, but I think at least two of them have Forths. It might all be easier to go with an emulator too.
- tombert 3y agoAs of right now, I'm happy enough to play with emulators and/or the MiSTer. I was initially excited about the Commander X16, butI've been a little disappointed with the concessions that the 8BitGuy made, and I feel I'll have enough fun with emulation.
- samatman 3y agoI would call it critically endangered, but would never call it a failure. Forth landed on a comet, and ran most astronomy labs and telescope control systems back in the day. For a couple decades there was a large amount of productive and unsexy work getting done in Forth, much of it under the radar in control systems for manufacturing, scientific tooling, waldos. It wasn't really until the mid 80s that it started drying up.