Re: merging edit time and run time

On Wed, May 11, 2005 at 05:42:59PM -0400, [email protected] wrote:
>
>
> ---- Original message ----
> >Date: Wed, 11 May 2005 22:13:28 +0100
> >From: llew <[email protected]>
> >Subject: Re: [colorforth] merging edit time and run time
> >To: [email protected]
> >
> >Isn't that PC + Linux?
> >
>
> The object of Linux is to hide the PC and every other piece
> of hardware created under the abstraction of UNIX. That is
> not same as producing computer hardware which is easy for
> programmers to program.

You got the goal and the means interchanged. The  Linux
people try to make an easy environment for programmers.
They succeed to that, not badly. To that I can testify myself.

Then the means is to hide or abstract away those things I'm not
currently interested in to program. You argue that this
is not necessary or helpful. I have seen little in the way
to base this on. The logic behind abstracting away things
is compelling. (Mathematics is based on it, too. And in a way
it is the way a complex neurotic system like humans work.
The neurons behind the eye work on abstraction, like lumped
colors, right or left moving things, edges, what not.)
Chucks essay about the "user illusion" has made but a small dent in
these insights. Or maybe Chuck just warns not to get overboard, and
supplies alternatives. I've not seen him claiming that it is
*the* alternative.

Compared to Linux, colorforth is a programmer-fiendly
environment. I can testify to that.

And the user illusion in Linux is far less strict than in Windows. You
can cross borders in Linux, and I routinely do in my Forth (lina) ,
e.g. playing musical instruments over the parallel port without a
proper driver. Programming SPI ports of an SBI directly based on the
fast Pentium timer.

> Mark

Groetjes Albert

--
Albert van der Horst,Oranjestr 8,3511 RA UTRECHT,THE NETHERLANDS
Economic growth -- like all pyramid schemes -- ultimately falters.
[email protected] http://home.hccnet.nl/a.w.m.van.der.horst