Path: csiph.com!eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!mx02.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Lawrence Statton NK1G Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.sys.raspberry-pi Subject: Re: Is it a lost cause? Followup-To: alt.folklore.computers Date: Mon, 20 Jun 2016 08:31:50 -0500 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 28 Message-ID: <87h9com1fc.fsf@senguio.mx> References: <20160614114510.4d394bac7c8e10a15df0e412@eircom.net> <20160614155730.36a360d7aad45c4b6ac1984f@eircom.net> <5m70mbhvvpirotdsuf9646t9vni2u2sgfg@4ax.com> <9e78mb1sb7v7ou09tn5rhgb9s9j7vtajou@4ax.com> <5kc8mbl41se90b85rncnalcs6t91oh2en4@4ax.com> <2140672064.487889713.925559.peter_flass-yahoo.com@news.eternal-september.org> <8qq8mbtbcfqie7g42j68kcga3lloudnklo@4ax.com> <164434940.487899820.078157.peter_flass-yahoo.com@news.eternal-september.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Injection-Info: mx02.eternal-september.org; posting-host="786e67848c2a11ea48db5c26a6ca1b32"; logging-data="25440"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX18Vxuy9ySx4XJMQNF5pMVW9" User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/23.4 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:7SnXUIgq5sRlz/VRDof3b1hECyY= sha1:FHATIwiYYC+XtGr1ZdEDlVP+2Fw= Xref: csiph.com alt.folklore.computers:165631 comp.sys.raspberry-pi:12156 Michael Black writes: > On Sun, 19 Jun 2016, Martin Gregorie wrote: > >> On Sun, 19 Jun 2016 18:31:59 +0000, Charlie Gibbs wrote: >> >>> On 2016-06-18, The Natural Philosopher wrote: >>> >>>> FORTH. Language to the gods! (does any one else speak it?). >>> >>> I bought and read Leo Brodie's "Starting Forth", and even played with it >>> a bit on my IMSAI. It looks like a fun language, although I'm not sure >>> how well it would scale up into real-world applications. >>> >> It used to be very big among astronomers (not sure whether of the radio >> or optical variety, but I have a feeling it was the former). I've no clue >> if they still use it. >> > Didn't some "small" computers use it in ROM as a monitor? > OpenBoot (aka Open Firmware) is implemented in forth, so there were/still-are a zillion Sun4/4u machines out there. For a brief while, Apple was using openboot but even finding it as a Mere Mortal User was difficult. (There was some 'arthritis' key-sequence to interrupt the normal boot process and drop you into the monitor during power up, but I've forgotten it)