knudsen (01/07/83)
Could some of you give me a capsule summary of the major differences between various generations of Forth -- eg, FIG, '79, '82, etc? What extensions do more recent versions have? I'm trying to select a Forth for Color Computer, have about 3 choices at widely varying prices. I don't expect (but will take!) advice on my particular machine, but since all vendors describe their product in terms of the above generations, I can use the general info. I've bougth & started Brodie's "Starting Forth", so feel free to reference that (and, what generation is THAT Forth?) T.I.A., mike k
smith@umn-cs.UUCP (06/06/83)
#R:ihnss:-127300:umn-cs:14200002:000:673 umn-cs!smith Jan 17 14:37:00 1983 FIG Forth, Forth 79, and Forth 82 are more similar than they are different. I haven't seen all of Forth 82, but what I did see didn't look like an "extension" of Forth. The standardization thrust seems mostly to involve renaming the same old Forth words, depending on whose favorite mnemonic is deemed most common. I suspect that Forth 79 will remain the de-facto standard. It appeared just as a whole ream of companies were ready to put out Forth packages, so they all threw in the extra effort to run Forth 79. More important, perhaps, is that Brodie used it in his book, "Starting Forth", which is probably the most readable Forth tutorial there is. Rick.