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Groups > comp.lang.forth > #56691

Nothing's great about Forth

From "Robert L." <No_spamming@noWhere_7073.org>
Newsgroups comp.lang.forth
Subject Nothing's great about Forth
Date 2017-04-04 10:45 +0000
Organization Aioe.org NNTP Server
Message-ID <obvtgp$k45$1@gioia.aioe.org> (permalink)
References <SPGdnQm88MTmrFXFnZ2dnUU7-VfNnZ2d@supernews.com>

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On 3/14/2017, Andrew Haley wrote:

Nothing's great about Forth

> I found this at http://www.paulgraham.com/popular.html


Graham was writing about Lispy languages, not about the
ultra low-level and clunky language called Forth.


>                                 You can write programs to
>   solve common problems with very little code.

Forth fails.

>                                Nearly all the code in
>   any program you write is code that's specific to your
>   application. Everything else has been done for you.

Forth fails.


>   Using big abstractions you can write the first version of a program
>   very quickly. Later, when you want to optimize, there's a really
>   good profiler that tells you where to focus your attention.

Forth fails.


>   There are lots of good examples to learn from, and the language is
>   intuitive enough that you can learn how to use it from examples in a
>   couple minutes. You don't need to look in the manual much. The
>   manual is thin, and has few warnings and qualifications.

Forth fails.


>   The language has a small core, and powerful, highly orthogonal
>   libraries that are as carefully designed as the core language. The
>   libraries all work well together; everything in the language fits
>   together like the parts in a fine camera. Nothing is deprecated, or
>   retained for compatibility. The source code of all the libraries is
>   readily available. It's easy to talk to the operating system and to
>   applications written in other languages.

Forth fails.


Forth lacks:

string-handling functions
a regular-expression engine
arrays
lists
associative arrays (hash-tables)
structures (records)
tuples
closures
a sort command
pattern-matching
etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., ... 

Forth is not at a much higher level than assembly language.

Forth is only for those whose minds cannot comprehend
high-level languages.

Gavotte finds it awe-inspiring.

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Thread

What's so great about Forth, anyway? Andrew Haley <andrew29@littlepinkcloud.invalid> - 2017-03-14 13:07 -0500
  Re: What's so great about Forth, anyway? Julian Fondren <julian.fondren@gmail.com> - 2017-03-14 11:54 -0700
    Re: What's so great about Forth, anyway? rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2017-03-14 15:53 -0400
    Re: What's so great about Forth, anyway? Julian Fondren <julian.fondren@gmail.com> - 2017-03-14 19:24 -0700
    Re: What's so great about Forth, anyway? anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) - 2017-03-15 10:00 +0000
      Re: What's so great about Forth, anyway? rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2017-03-15 12:57 -0400
        Re: What's so great about Forth, anyway? Julian Fondren <julian.fondren@gmail.com> - 2017-03-15 11:09 -0700
          Re: What's so great about Forth, anyway? Andrew Haley <andrew29@littlepinkcloud.invalid> - 2017-03-16 04:05 -0500
        Re: What's so great about Forth, anyway? anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) - 2017-03-16 09:41 +0000
          Re: What's so great about Forth, anyway? hughaguilar96@gmail.com - 2017-03-16 10:57 -0700
            Re: What's so great about Forth, anyway? rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2017-03-16 14:41 -0400
      Re: What's so great about Forth, anyway? hughaguilar96@gmail.com - 2017-03-15 11:34 -0700
      Re: What's so great about Forth, anyway? franck.bensusan@gmail.com - 2017-03-22 03:24 -0700
        Re: What's so great about Forth, anyway? "Elizabeth D. Rather" <erather@forth.com> - 2017-03-22 11:24 -1000
          Re: What's so great about Forth, anyway? franck.bensusan@gmail.com - 2017-03-23 14:51 -0700
        Re: What's so great about Forth, anyway? Andrew Haley <andrew29@littlepinkcloud.invalid> - 2017-03-23 04:25 -0500
          Re: What's so great about Forth, anyway? franck.bensusan@gmail.com - 2017-03-23 14:58 -0700
            Re: What's so great about Forth, anyway? Andrew Haley <andrew29@littlepinkcloud.invalid> - 2017-03-24 03:03 -0500
              Re: What's so great about Forth, anyway? franck.bensusan@gmail.com - 2017-03-24 04:52 -0700
                Re: What's so great about Forth, anyway? Andrew Haley <andrew29@littlepinkcloud.invalid> - 2017-03-24 09:06 -0500
        Re: What's so great about Forth, anyway? Julian Fondren <julian.fondren@gmail.com> - 2017-03-23 07:47 -0700
        Re: What's so great about Forth, anyway? anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) - 2017-03-25 17:13 +0000
          Re: What's so great about Forth, anyway? franck.bensusan@gmail.com - 2017-03-28 13:48 -0700
        Re: What's so great about Forth, anyway? Brad Eckert <hwfwguy@gmail.com> - 2017-03-28 18:34 -0700
          Re: What's so great about Forth, anyway? Julian Fondren <julian.fondren@gmail.com> - 2017-03-28 18:52 -0700
            Re: What's so great about Forth, anyway? anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) - 2017-03-29 11:53 +0000
              Re: What's so great about Forth, anyway? Ron Aaron <rambamist@gmail.com> - 2017-03-29 15:09 +0300
                Re: What's so great about Forth, anyway? anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) - 2017-03-29 13:58 +0000
                Re: What's so great about Forth, anyway? Ron Aaron <rambamist@gmail.com> - 2017-03-29 17:24 +0300
                Re: What's so great about Forth, anyway? The Beez <the.beez.speaks@gmail.com> - 2017-04-04 03:04 -0700
                Re: What's so great about Forth, anyway? Ron Aaron <rambamist@gmail.com> - 2017-04-04 15:30 +0300
                Re: What's so great about Forth, anyway? The Beez <the.beez.speaks@gmail.com> - 2017-04-06 05:36 -0700
                Re: What's so great about Forth, anyway? anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) - 2017-04-04 16:35 +0000
                Re: What's so great about Forth, anyway? hughaguilar96@gmail.com - 2017-04-05 11:46 -0700
          Re: What's so great about Forth, anyway? "Elizabeth D. Rather" <erather@forth.com> - 2017-03-28 16:12 -1000
            Re: What's so great about Forth, anyway? anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) - 2017-03-29 11:59 +0000
          Re: What's so great about Forth, anyway? anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) - 2017-03-29 10:24 +0000
          Re: What's so great about Forth, anyway? franck.bensusan@gmail.com - 2017-04-04 04:05 -0700
      Re: What's so great about Forth, anyway? gavino himself <jackvanc3@gmail.com> - 2017-03-22 13:18 -0700
  Re: What's so great about Forth, anyway? NN <november.nihal@gmail.com> - 2017-03-14 12:20 -0700
  Re: What's so great about Forth, anyway? gavino himself <jackvanc3@gmail.com> - 2017-04-02 19:52 -0700
  Nothing's great about Forth "Robert L." <No_spamming@noWhere_7073.org> - 2017-04-04 10:45 +0000
    Re: Nothing's great about Forth Julian Fondren <julian.fondren@gmail.com> - 2017-04-04 08:00 -0700
    Re: Nothing's great about Forth lehs <skydda.barnen@gmail.com> - 2017-04-04 08:16 -0700
    Re: Nothing's great about Forth Mark Wills <markwills1970@gmail.com> - 2017-04-04 09:11 -0700
    Re: Nothing's great about Forth Ilya Tarasov <ilya74.tarasov@gmail.com> - 2017-04-06 06:42 -0700

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