keithe@teklabs.UUCP (Keith Ericson) (10/24/83)
I have some additions/corrections to my earlier note on HES 64FORTH. Also, I think I may have generated a slightly more negative tone than really deserved in some areas. Firstly, the I/O error codes ARE in the 64FORTH manual; on the page following the FORTH error codes. Also, the description of being barely adequate was somewhat overly pessimistic. It's just that I'm afraid that purchasers of 64FORTH may not have any other FORTH reference material; they might judge the utility and value of FORTH on what they can manage to get done based on the booklet. The booklet gives the impression of being a tutorial - in explaining the editor functions, for example - but it really doesn't quite make it. Having read Brodie's "Starting FORTH" will make 64FORTH much more usable. One of my objections to the booklet is that there is a lot of information squirreled away in places not easily found, particularly in the glossary of words. And the only way to find it is to read through the entire glossary and hope you can remember where it was you saw it next time you need it. And, in keeping with the style of Brodie's book, there is no index. One of the things I discovered in the glossary was verification of my conjecture regarding disk files using only 128 bytes (actually, they say it's 129, but the extra one is probably not data but housekeeping) out of 254 available. A mistake in my opinion. I still haven't gotten around to using the sprite editor or the sound control words. Maybe next week.... keith ericson at teklabs keithe