What is Forth?

[Brad R]

Wow, the Loeliger book in PDF! I have a hardcopy of that -- it's a classic -- but it's been out of print for years. Thanks for the links!

[chitselb]

I picked up my own hardcover hardcopy of Loeliger's book when I worked at ComputerLand of Tysons Corner (1981, age 19). It's the thing that got me into Forth.

[BigEd]

One of the reviewers at Amazon recommends also this BYTE article:
https://archive.org/stream/byte-magazin ... 7/mode/1up
"Varieties of Threaded Code for Language Implementation" by Ritter and Walker

[BitWise]

chitselb wrote:

I picked up my own hardcover hardcopy of Loeliger's book when I worked at ComputerLand of Tysons Corner (1981, age 19). It's the thing that got me into Forth.

I made a special trip to Foyles to get a copy.

[nyef]

I'll just chime in on the general acclaim for the Loeliger book. My go-to reference for Forth implementation for years. Not conforming to any Forth standard particularly well, specific to the ITC model, but a wonderful explanation of how the basics work and how to implement the overall system. And then there were the last couple of chapters on extensions (assembler, target-compiler, and so on) and "Life". Overall, worth far, far more than the dollar or so that I paid for my copy.

[programandala.net]

GARTHWILSON wrote:

I'll direct you to a couple of good ones, http://www.tinyboot.com/about4th.html and http://www.tinyboot.com/bforth.htm , before attempting to answer it myself below..

That website disappeared some years ago, but the most recent copies of those pages on archive.org are the following:

• A brief introduction to Forth, by Philip J. Koopman Jr.
• An introduction to Forth, by Brad Eckert

[Dr Jefyll]

Welcome, Marcos, and thanks for the links. Nice to have another Forth fan join our group!

-- Jeff

[programandala.net]

cr1901 wrote:

and there is also an F83 standard.

This clarification may be useful: Sometimes "F83" is used as an informal abbreviation of "Forth-83", but they are two different things:

• Forth-83 Standard.
• F83, a popular Forth-83 Standard Forth system, written by Michael Perry and Henry Laxen, with implementations for CP/M, CP/M 86, DOS and maybe others. It can be found on Taygeta FTP and GitHub.

I think Forth-83 and F83 still are very interesting: Understanding the changes Forth-83 introduced to Forth-79 helps to understand some aspects of Forth-94 (ANS Forth) and the current standard Forth-2012. As for F83, its code is a source of inspiration and ideas.

[GARTHWILSON]

Thanks Marcos.  I updated the links in my earlier post.

[programandala.net]

Dr Jefyll wrote:

Welcome, Marcos, and thanks for the links. Nice to have another Forth fan join our group!

Thanks. I don't program the 6502, but the Z80. I joined because Forth is my favorite language and I've seen there are interesting discussions here.

[programandala.net]

GARTHWILSON wrote:

Thanks Marcos. I updated the links in my earlier post.

Great. When I realized the links you recommended were broken I got intrigued, because I like reading any kind of Forth tutorials and introductions, so I searched web.archive.org for the latest copies. I liked that old site by Brad Eckert. It contains an interesting collection of articles and also code written by him.

[programandala.net]

programandala.net wrote:

I don't program the 6502, but the Z80. I joined because Forth is my favorite language and I've seen there are interesting discussions here.

I quote myself to make it clearer, just in case: I know the forum is 6502-specific. I have no intention to post about Forth on Z80. There are other forums for that. What I meant is I can contribute only to generic Forth discussions.

[BigDumbDinosaur]

programandala.net wrote:

programandala.net wrote:

I don't program the 6502, but the Z80. I joined because Forth is my favorite language and I've seen there are interesting discussions here.

I quote myself to make it clearer, just in case: I know the forum is 6502-specific. I have no intention to post about Forth on Z80. There are other forums for that. What I meant is I can contribute only to generic Forth discussions.

We are a 6502-oriented forum and generally maintain focus on that processor family, both hardware and software (also, FPGA implementations of the 6502 and derivatives). Perhaps we can get you interested in the 6502 or better yet, the 65C816. A number of Forth implementations for the 6502 family exist and you might find one of them interesting. Who knows: you might end up trying your hand at scratch-building a 6502 contraption.

[theGSman]

BigDumbDinosaur wrote:

Who knows: you might end up trying your hand at scratch-building a 6502 contraption.

In the mean time, programandala.net's contributions to this Forth section will be most welcome.

[BigEd]

Yes, very welcome!