Re: Hello - and where to begin?

Quoting "M. Edward (Ed) Borasky" <[email protected]>:
> 
> It's been a long time since I did any Forth
> programming, but from what 
> I've seen, Forth, Inc. is about the only Forth
> business that's thriving. 

Nick here: MPE (MicroProcessor Engineering, UK) is
still
 in business - and has been as long as I can remember.
I
have just now downloaded their FREE alpha VFX Forth for
Linux 64 as well as 32. Judging by their old DOS PCP
Forth which I bought years ago (and have now
transferred happily to a 3GHz Pentium D) I expect their
free Linux offering to be an equally rugged, reliable,
longlasting and well documented product as their
revenue
raising products (which qualities, I believe, are the
secret of business longevity). As you say, no
"vapourware". 

>    Now maybe -- just maybe -- SeaForth will catch on,
> but it's not going to be as a general-purpose
computer.

Nick here: CF is cutting edge, and SeaForth even more
so. It is premature IMHO to see them in a GP computer. 
Which is why I asked Terry on Jan 21: 
> So, what do you think of using a
> normal PC as host to a SeaForth thumb drive - with
the
> PC supplying all the run of the mill applications and
> SeaForth supplying the special forces?  

To which Terry replied: 
I like the idea. It would enable the development of an
ASCII based interface
running on the PC, with translation layer, so that
normal programmers could
access colorForth but not be restricted to Chucks
interface. If a standard,
either defacto or dictated, could be worked out then
the
ability of colorForth
to be more widely used would definitely be enhanced.

Caritas, 

NickM

-- 
Dr Nicolas George Maroudas
Avigdor Meiri 9/1 
Sea View 
Haifa 3 55 00 
Israel 
Tel +972 048 337 315 

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