bushell@HAWK.NSTN.NS.CA (Tom Bushell) (09/25/90)
I can see why Forth in Forth (metacompiling) might be a little more intimidating to the novice, but if you're interested in modifying Forth itself, or to play around with new language concepts, my experience is that it's the way to go. If you just want to _understand_ how it works, rather than mess with it, maybe C or assembler would be less of a conceptual leap. But for you hands on types, make the extra effort - it's worth it. My main reason for supporting metacompiling Forths is I think Forth is the second most productive programming environment mere mortals have access to. Having to work in C or assembler, just because you're working on the compiler instead of an application would seem to be a step backwards. -Tom Bushell P.S. In case anybody cares what I think is the most productive programming environment - Smalltalk. But maybe that will change if OOFs get rolling.