4 ms·

It is sad to see. I understand where he is coming from though. He is 87 and doesn't think recoding a super niche' software tool is the best use of what very wel

It is sad to see. I understand where he is coming from though. He is 87 and doesn't think recoding a super niche' software tool is the best use of what very well may be his last few years of life. He still seems super sharp though and is a major inspiration.

beachy 11mo ago
What would be the best use of his last few years? Sitting in an easy chair by the pool? Using your last few years to exercise your brain and ward off cognitive decline might be the best way to ensure those last few years are fulfilling and not just marking time before the end.
- anyfoo 11mo ago
  That's quite a dichotomy here. He can exercise his brain and ward off cognitive decline without working on Colorforth specifically...
  - beachy 11mo ago
    Some people have trouble doing meaningless intellectual pursuits like crosswords, sudoku etc. Working on Colorforth might be the greatest meaning in his life.
    - 7thaccount 11mo ago
      He himself said he didn't think it was worth it anymore and that he very rarely codes now. I respect him enough to assume he has some other pursuit more worthy of his attention.
      - kragen 11mo ago
        Maybe he's been suffering a cognitive decline that makes coding much less rewarding.
    - anyfoo 11mo ago
      Still the same dichotomy. Who's to say his other pursuits are "meaningless", and the likes of crosswords, sudoku, etc.? For all we know he might have some other projects that he considers more useful. He does not think working on Colorforth is worth it anymore, so it could actually be detrimental to do so.
    - eternityforest 11mo ago
      I suppose there's meaning in searching for abstract logical truths, but he might have other such pursuits. Or, he might even feel that it's mostly done already and became just another boring software maintenance project. It's hard to imagine an extremely niche software tool to be the greatest meaning in someone's life.
    - burningChrome 11mo ago
      >> Some people have trouble doing meaningless intellectual pursuits like crosswords, sudoku etc. My Dad is like this. I'm like this. My son is like this. Unless we're busy, pushing ourselves to build something, fix something or just outside doing something we don't feel the reward. My Dad told his motto, "A rolling rock gathers no moss - until it finally stops rolling." He told me that in his 50's - he's in his 80's still out in the garage refinishing old furniture and giving it away. The drive the man has just never burns out.
      - markus_zhang 10mo ago
        Yeah! I can definitely see myself doing that. I told family and friends that my ideal way of death is a quick death by the computer when I'm over 80 working on some projects. I just have to move forward in some direction.
- computably 11mo ago
  Perhaps he has chosen the best use of his last few years to his own satisfaction, and doesn't feel the need to share every last detail about himself on the internet.
- eternityforest 11mo ago
  He specifically mentions hiking and staying healthy, I'd imagine he's not going to stop using his brain completely.
- stronglikedan 11mo ago
  > What would be the best use of his last few years? Sitting in an easy chair by the pool? That's completely up to him, and if that's what he wants to do, then that's the best use. No one can say what is best for anyone else.
Jblx2 11mo ago
Isn't that part of the Forth mantra though, to be written to the lowest level possible, eschewing portability, interoperability, hard coding fonts, etc., to achieve the simplest, most minimal implementation possible? https://www.ultratechnology.com/forth.htm https://www.ultratechnology.com/forth.htm
- drcode 11mo ago
  must. not. go. too. deep. into. forth. rabbithole.
  - II2II 11mo ago
    s" must" . s" not" . s" go" . s" too" . s" deep" . s" into" . s" forth" . s" rabbithole" . When you go down the rabbit hole in Forth, it is easy to pop back out.
    - kamaal 11mo ago
      Actually it is- s" rabbithole" .s" forth" .s" into" .s" deep" .s" too" .s" go" .s" not" .s" must" .
      - kragen 11mo ago
        $ gforth Gforth 0.7.3, Copyright (C) 1995-2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc. Gforth comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type `license' Type `bye' to exit s" rabbithole" .s" forth" .s" into" .s" deep" .s" too" .s" go" .s" not" .s" must" . :1: Undefined word s" rabbithole" >>>.s"<<< forth" .s" into" .s" deep" .s" too" .s" go" .s" not" .s" must" . Backtrace: $7F53D6EF5A68 throw $7F53D6F0BDB0 no.extensions $7F53D6EF5D28 interpreter-notfound1 :: : ws s" rabbithole " s" forth " s" into " s" deep " s" too " s" go " s" not " compiled s" must " 8 0 do type loop ; ok ws must not go too deep into forth rabbithole ok
- 7thaccount 11mo ago
  Forth is generally all about minimalism as I understand it, but that has nothing to do with what I wrote. I was just saying the man obviously wants to focus on something else at this stage of his life and that is perfectly okay. I think he might port to Raspberry Pi if he was a few years younger, but he pointed out that he didn't think it was worth it at this point.
kamaal 11mo ago
>>He is 87 and doesn't think recoding a super niche' software tool is the best use of what very well may be his last few years of life. Know quite a few elderly men, were moving mountains until retirement, then at one age they wanted to simply step back and relax. It was a cognitive downhill from there on. Also there is something strange about men sitting at home doing nothing. For some reasons families start hating as little as a sentence from them. You have to sit quiet for most of your life. Which honestly speaking is nothing short of a punishment, because you are actually expected to behave like furniture, or at best like a vegetable. Even other wise I do see men who retired early not having all that a great time sitting at home and doing nothing. Without a purpose, you won't enjoy living life much.
- markus_zhang 11mo ago
  Yep, in China there was a research that says retirement is a major killer for certain elder people (forgot the details but most likely just statistics of the number of years between retirement and death). I don’t know. I’d like to find a calling and die working on it.
mbac32768 11mo ago
if he's not going to maintain it anymore can't he at least open source it?
- ninalanyon 11mo ago
  It's public domain, sort of. " Updated 2002 September Philosophy My attitude about software is that it expresses ideas that cannot be owned. Attempting to assert ownership is undesirable and impossible. So, although colorForth is infinitely valuable, I place it in the Public Domain to make it freely available to anyone for any purpose. There is plenty of money to be made by porting code, programming applications and teaching. I am having a fine time using colorForth. I won't spend much time promoting it. This site is my attempt to gauge the market. I will rigidly control the version I use." But when you go to the downloads you see this: "Download You can download colorForth thanks to UltraTechnology. Downloads are still available. But note that COLOR.COM can only run under DOS - not Windows. As you can see above, it's 9 years old and I no longer know how to run it. The current version is available at GreenArrays COLOR.COM Jul31 boot.asm, floppy source gen.asm, generic graphics source color.asm, kernel source This is the exact version I'm using, limited only in the amount of source code provided. It's a 63KB .COM program. You're welcome to use it as you please. But it's a powerful tool, so please be careful." See https://colorforth.github.io/ https://colorforth.github.io/

beachy 11mo ago

What would be the best use of his last few years? Sitting in an easy chair by the pool? Using your last few years to exercise your brain and ward off cognitive decline might be the best way to ensure those last few years are fulfilling and not just marking time before the end.

anyfoo 11mo ago
That's quite a dichotomy here. He can exercise his brain and ward off cognitive decline without working on Colorforth specifically...
- beachy 11mo ago
  Some people have trouble doing meaningless intellectual pursuits like crosswords, sudoku etc. Working on Colorforth might be the greatest meaning in his life.
  - 7thaccount 11mo ago
    He himself said he didn't think it was worth it anymore and that he very rarely codes now. I respect him enough to assume he has some other pursuit more worthy of his attention.
    - kragen 11mo ago
      Maybe he's been suffering a cognitive decline that makes coding much less rewarding.
  - anyfoo 11mo ago
    Still the same dichotomy. Who's to say his other pursuits are "meaningless", and the likes of crosswords, sudoku, etc.? For all we know he might have some other projects that he considers more useful. He does not think working on Colorforth is worth it anymore, so it could actually be detrimental to do so.
  - eternityforest 11mo ago
    I suppose there's meaning in searching for abstract logical truths, but he might have other such pursuits. Or, he might even feel that it's mostly done already and became just another boring software maintenance project. It's hard to imagine an extremely niche software tool to be the greatest meaning in someone's life.
  - burningChrome 11mo ago
    >> Some people have trouble doing meaningless intellectual pursuits like crosswords, sudoku etc. My Dad is like this. I'm like this. My son is like this. Unless we're busy, pushing ourselves to build something, fix something or just outside doing something we don't feel the reward. My Dad told his motto, "A rolling rock gathers no moss - until it finally stops rolling." He told me that in his 50's - he's in his 80's still out in the garage refinishing old furniture and giving it away. The drive the man has just never burns out.
    - markus_zhang 10mo ago
      Yeah! I can definitely see myself doing that. I told family and friends that my ideal way of death is a quick death by the computer when I'm over 80 working on some projects. I just have to move forward in some direction.
computably 11mo ago
Perhaps he has chosen the best use of his last few years to his own satisfaction, and doesn't feel the need to share every last detail about himself on the internet.
eternityforest 11mo ago
He specifically mentions hiking and staying healthy, I'd imagine he's not going to stop using his brain completely.
stronglikedan 11mo ago
> What would be the best use of his last few years? Sitting in an easy chair by the pool? That's completely up to him, and if that's what he wants to do, then that's the best use. No one can say what is best for anyone else.

Jblx2 11mo ago

Isn't that part of the Forth mantra though, to be written to the lowest level possible, eschewing portability, interoperability, hard coding fonts, etc., to achieve the simplest, most minimal implementation possible? https://www.ultratechnology.com/forth.htm https://www.ultratechnology.com/forth.htm

drcode 11mo ago
must. not. go. too. deep. into. forth. rabbithole.
- II2II 11mo ago
  s" must" . s" not" . s" go" . s" too" . s" deep" . s" into" . s" forth" . s" rabbithole" . When you go down the rabbit hole in Forth, it is easy to pop back out.
  - kamaal 11mo ago
    Actually it is- s" rabbithole" .s" forth" .s" into" .s" deep" .s" too" .s" go" .s" not" .s" must" .
    - kragen 11mo ago
      $ gforth Gforth 0.7.3, Copyright (C) 1995-2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc. Gforth comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type `license' Type `bye' to exit s" rabbithole" .s" forth" .s" into" .s" deep" .s" too" .s" go" .s" not" .s" must" . :1: Undefined word s" rabbithole" >>>.s"<<< forth" .s" into" .s" deep" .s" too" .s" go" .s" not" .s" must" . Backtrace: $7F53D6EF5A68 throw $7F53D6F0BDB0 no.extensions $7F53D6EF5D28 interpreter-notfound1 :: : ws s" rabbithole " s" forth " s" into " s" deep " s" too " s" go " s" not " compiled s" must " 8 0 do type loop ; ok ws must not go too deep into forth rabbithole ok
7thaccount 11mo ago
Forth is generally all about minimalism as I understand it, but that has nothing to do with what I wrote. I was just saying the man obviously wants to focus on something else at this stage of his life and that is perfectly okay. I think he might port to Raspberry Pi if he was a few years younger, but he pointed out that he didn't think it was worth it at this point.

kamaal 11mo ago

>>He is 87 and doesn't think recoding a super niche' software tool is the best use of what very well may be his last few years of life. Know quite a few elderly men, were moving mountains until retirement, then at one age they wanted to simply step back and relax. It was a cognitive downhill from there on. Also there is something strange about men sitting at home doing nothing. For some reasons families start hating as little as a sentence from them. You have to sit quiet for most of your life. Which honestly speaking is nothing short of a punishment, because you are actually expected to behave like furniture, or at best like a vegetable. Even other wise I do see men who retired early not having all that a great time sitting at home and doing nothing. Without a purpose, you won't enjoy living life much.

markus_zhang 11mo ago
Yep, in China there was a research that says retirement is a major killer for certain elder people (forgot the details but most likely just statistics of the number of years between retirement and death). I don’t know. I’d like to find a calling and die working on it.

mbac32768 11mo ago

if he's not going to maintain it anymore can't he at least open source it?

ninalanyon 11mo ago
It's public domain, sort of. " Updated 2002 September Philosophy My attitude about software is that it expresses ideas that cannot be owned. Attempting to assert ownership is undesirable and impossible. So, although colorForth is infinitely valuable, I place it in the Public Domain to make it freely available to anyone for any purpose. There is plenty of money to be made by porting code, programming applications and teaching. I am having a fine time using colorForth. I won't spend much time promoting it. This site is my attempt to gauge the market. I will rigidly control the version I use." But when you go to the downloads you see this: "Download You can download colorForth thanks to UltraTechnology. Downloads are still available. But note that COLOR.COM can only run under DOS - not Windows. As you can see above, it's 9 years old and I no longer know how to run it. The current version is available at GreenArrays COLOR.COM Jul31 boot.asm, floppy source gen.asm, generic graphics source color.asm, kernel source This is the exact version I'm using, limited only in the amount of source code provided. It's a 63KB .COM program. You're welcome to use it as you please. But it's a powerful tool, so please be careful." See https://colorforth.github.io/ https://colorforth.github.io/