Marcos_de_la_Puerta_Borja%EUSKOM.SPRITEL.ES@SCFVM.GSFC.NASA.GOV (03/21/91)
> Why do people always try to drag C into the argument? I have never felt > the desire to add a new control to C. I can program sufficiently in C > given the structures which are provided. In addition C provides me with > a wide variety of types and uniform ways to create new ones and deal with > intermixing. C is a good language as much as Pascal. I have worked extensively in Pascal, and these languages are perfect for using traditional programming techniques. When writing such programs it is not necessary to further extend the language constructs. Forth is the most flexible language I know. It enables the programmer to do things nearly impossible in traditional languages, as C or Pascal. Imagine that you are writing a multitasking kernel for your language, and you want to use TRUE process declaration. How would you do it in Pascal or C? Would you use a strange preprocessor? In Forth I can define such constructs with a tremendous freedom, using the same resources as the compiler, and controlling where and how the compiled code is placed, so when I started to write concurrent programs in my 8 bit development system I did not need to learn a new language, but extend my favourite one (Forth) for process declaration, critical regions, etc. Such things are impossible in Pascal or C because the compiler is a black box. Doing such things in Pascal or C is tricky if you don't rewrite the compiler. Examples of the good uses of such features are in: "A Timed Event Network Scheduler in Forth" by Gregory Ilg and R.J. Brown, Dr. Dobb's Journal, vol IV, issue 2, February 1989. This excellent article shows an example of a user-oriented aplication language which enables a user with no programming experience to define and tune a network of processes. > Bill <bouma@cs.purdue.edu> ************************************************************************ Borja Marcos * Internet: m_d_l_p_b@euskom.spritel.es Alangoeta, 11, 1o izq. * UUCP: uunet!euskom.spritel.es!m_d_l_p_b 48990 - Algorta (Vizcaya) * FidoNet: Borja Marcos at 2:344/3.420 SPAIN * ************************************************************************