How about a Revival Meeting?

LoopyByteloose · 2012-11-05 08:16

A heck of a lot of progress has been made recently in both GCC and Forth on the Propeller. Simple IDE is coming along too.

With GCC and Catalina C available for both C and C++ and with a variety of good Forth solutions evolving, it seems like these milestone languages of C and Forth should become more of a focus for Parallax.

Simply put, they not only have a place in history - they also are extremely important to new learners as a means to begin computer language studies with languages that were not as complex and nuanced or as extremely large as those of today.

So don't be surprised in Parallax sets up a tent for a Revival Meeting at the next public event and Ken is seen banging on a copy of "C Programing" or "Starting Forth". We might even have guest appearances, like Star Trek conventions of Richie, Kernighan, Brodie, and Moore.

Wouldn't that be grand?

I am particularly enthused about Forth as 'the' interpreted language of choice for the Propeller. A lot of people learned the basics with interpreted languages, but they got dismissed when hard disk storage came along. An interpreted language offers a very fast paced way to explore and learn computers - it should not be ignored.

LoopyByteloose · 2012-11-05 08:25

Excuse me. Mr. Dennis Richie passed away Oct. 13, 2011. But the rest of these gentlemen are still with us. And there are other greats of computer language still around.

Dave Hein · 2012-11-05 08:37

Loopy, the main languages on the Prop are Spin and PASM. Parallax also supports PropGCC, but it is still in beta. Forth is at most a distant fifth behind PropBasic. There are probably less than a dozen people that actually develop applications in Forth for the Prop. I have an academic interest in Forth, and it has its own niche in Prop development. It would be good for the Forth developers to present practical applications that they've done on the Prop. I'm not so sure about a "Revival Meeting", but Forth does seem to have a "religious" following.

Heater. · 2012-11-05 09:01

I would imagine a meeting comprised of C and Forth aficionados could turn as ugly as a Liverpool-Everton match. Better warn the authorities well in a advance:)

rod1963 · 2012-11-05 20:59

You'd have more luck organizing a bunch of Papillo users running the Zylin stack machines than Prop Forthers. There aren't enough of them.

Forth is a niche language. It's heyday was back in the late 80's early 90's. I liked it, it attracted a lot of innovative micro designers. But it never lived up to it's hype as a RAD for large apps by it's zealots. But for smart people who know who code highly factored programs - like Chuck Moore does, it works quite well. It's one reason it's used in Space programs as opposed to say Java or Spin.

It's hardware notions lives on in Zylin and other stack processor machines.

C is the defacto corporate language. Designed by and for professionals. It's the Microsoft of languages. It's as corporate as it gets.

Heater. · 2012-11-05 21:23

Doesn't look like C needs reviving, Forth on the other hand...:)

LoopyByteloose · 2012-11-06 03:02

Well.... I guess I am off in the weeds.... (arg!!!).

Forth simply delights me as an interpret language for exploring the Propeller and its architecture.

I am well aware that SPIN and PASM are the main tools.

I am not sure PropBasic will be anything other than another compiled language. And being so, it may not offer the educational utility that only an interactive language can.

Of course, there are other Basics that other people have done and an interpreted Basic may be amongst them.

How about a Revival Meeting?

Comments