jax@well.sf.ca.us (Jack J. Woehr) (05/29/90)
The crabs scuttle across the warm sands of Melbourne, Florida,
where after dark the momma sea turtles carefully deposit their eggs,
oblivious to the fact that Melbourne has just seen the comings and
goings of the members of the X3J14 Technical Committee for an
ANS Forth.
In a sense, the Technical Committee is like a sea turtle,
which buries its eggs in faith that the seasons shall come in order
and the warmth shall hatch her offspring. The sea turtle has no
control over the times and tides, she does her best job and departs
in hope that her work will bear fruit.
Many vendors have declined to participate in the effort
to propose an ANS Forth. In general, the noise-to-signal ratio
in these proceedings has been high. Nonetheless, I believe that
something worthwhile lies at the core of what is rapidly coalescing
into a dpANS proposal for Forth.
In the following weeks and months I hope to have time
to help keep the Forth community posted on the ups and downs
of the standard about to be proposed. I want to defend its
strengths, be frank about its weaknesses, and help explain
how some of the decisions were reached, whether I agree with
those decisions or not.
In a very real sense, ANS Forth will be the first Forth
which actually belongs to the Forth community as a whole. Everyone
has been invited into these proceedings, and we have heard from
all over the world. Before the draft Standard becomes ANS Forth,
we are compelled to accept your comment and criticism in yet
another round of proceedings. If you have been participating,
hang in there! If up to now you have declined to participate,
it's not too late!
We *need* ANS Forth ... not as a replacement for our pet
Forths, but as a supplement to our favorite Forths and as a
supplement to the economic viability of our careers as Forth
programmers, project managers, users and vendors.
Criticise, cavil ... but *support* ANS Forth! Order
BASIS 12 for $10.00 US (slightly higher for overseas airmail):
ANS ASC X3/X3J14 Technical Committee
111 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Suite 300
Manhattan Beach CA 90266
Be sure to include the "Suite 300" as the post office
is being rather intransigent about delivering the mail correctly
without it.
<jax@well.{UUCP,sf.ca.us} >< Member, > /// ///\\\ \\\ ///
<well!jax@lll-winken.arpa >< X3J14 TC > /// /// \\\ \\\///
<JAX on GENIE >< for ANSI > \\\ /// ///====\\\ ///\\\
<SYSOP RCFB (303) 278-0364>< Forth > \\\/// /// \\\ /// \\\jax@well.sf.ca.us (Jack J. Woehr) (06/03/90)
One of the most important (IMHO) decisions taken at the
recent meeting of the X3J14 Technical Committee for dpANS Forth
was that a controversial step was at last to be taken.
BASIS12 will appear online.
The Technical Committee is not exactly rolling in dough.
The BASIS is prepared after every meeting, on the freely donated time
of the volunteer editor, in MicroSoft Word [TM] format. It will
be uploaded to a variety of telecom outlets in that format. If
you don't have access to Word, believe me, don't bother to
download!
But for those of us who will make the effort to examine
this document, the decision of the TC is most welcome.
Current plans are that your correspondent will be passed
a copy which he will try to make available on USENET, probably
sometime in July.
BASIS12 is a step to *your* Standard for ANS Forth!
Participate!
<jax@well.{UUCP,sf.ca.us} >< Member, > /// ///\\\ \\\ ///
<well!jax@lll-winken.arpa >< X3J14 TC > /// /// \\\ \\\///
<JAX on GENIE >< for ANS > \\\ /// ///====\\\ ///\\\
<SYSOP RCFB (303) 278-0364>< Forth > \\\/// /// \\\ /// \\\dwp@willett.UUCP (Doug Philips) (06/10/90)
In <18311@well.sf.ca.us>, jax@well.sf.ca.us (Jack J. Woehr) writes: > > BASIS12 will appear online. > > The Technical Committee is not exactly rolling in dough. > The BASIS is prepared after every meeting, on the freely donated time > of the volunteer editor, in MicroSoft Word [TM] format. It will > be uploaded to a variety of telecom outlets in that format. If > you don't have access to Word, believe me, don't bother to > download! Why not also post versions that are preformatted for various types of printers? (Epson, IBM, Okidata, etc?) So maybe you support half a dozen plus "Plain ascii", or can't MicroSoft Word [TM] format its output for a plain ascii printer? -Doug --- Preferred: willett!dwp@hobbes.cert.sei.cmu.edu OR ...!sei!willett!dwp Daily: ...!{uunet,nfsun}!willett!dwp [in a pinch: dwp@vega.fac.cs.cmu.edu]