GARTHWILSON wrote:
[color=#000000]I myself have not been too interested in portability, because of the way I use Forth.
If the way use Forth is not some secret for work, I'd like to hear more about it. Other peoples ideas gives me ideas.
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If you want to do a search though, you'll probably get better results if you search for "portability" or "portable" than you will with "transportability" or "transportable." Although there are things about ANS that I don't think are suitable for 65xx, I know that one thing impeding the acceptance of Forth has been that we independent-minded, free-thinking Forthers all tend to do things our own way. That's a strength of Forth, that it allows us to do that possibly more than any other HLL; but it makes it harder for someone who wants to get into it and is looking over the options and just finds more confusion because he can't find agreement between versions. I remember letters to the editor in Forth Dimensions magazine in the early 1990's lamenting that a problem standing in the way of acceptance of Forth is that there was no effective standard.
Probably because too many people involved wanted to have a say in the standard. When Microsoft Basic was written, I don't think Gates went out and asked a whole bunch of people their opinion. He just wrote it and got a patent so nobody could copy his code easily making him the only boss in town that could change Basic.
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That was before ANS Forth. The X3J14 committee had a huge task on their hands which was not easy. They did the best they could, I believe, and still ruffled a lot of feathers because there was no way to make everyone happy in some areas. Jack Woehr of Vesta Technologies who was on the X3J14 committee says in his book "Forth: The New Model", "When Forth, which some hold to be inextricably wedded to hardware, takes responsibility for cross-platform portability, a certain light-footedness and grace will be surrendered." He admits that optimum portability and optimum efficiency don't come at the same point. Fortunately he also says it's not the committee's intention to force anyone to comply with the standard.
I am not looking for so much of meeting the standard of more modern Forth's. Just understanding and using some/most/all of the words that are supported by newer Forths.
I wouldn't consider words linked to direct hardware calls should be a part of any standard, but I think those words could have at least be given a mention where flexibility, hence the light-footedness, might be needed.
You are probably the most advanced Forth user in this Forum, Garth, and I thank you for sticking around to answer silly questions. I imagine once most people get to a certain expertise level, they drift away from the forums.
I have found quite a bit of reading material for the 83 and Ansi standards, but my problem is that if I don't understand its function or use case and it doesn't mention if the word is being used, as in most cases to aid in portability, or if it is a new word with a totally different meaning from other Forths, then I get lost trying to port some programs to my Forth. Most of the listings of games/programs I have found so far follow the Ansi standard. For the most part, I think I can re-create them in my Forth. I just need to be able to understand the intent or function of some of the words.