cheung@vu-vlsi.UUCP (Wilson Cheung) (09/15/87)
I've had J-FORTH back ordered from Go Amigo for over a week. They claim that they have been trying to get into contact with the manufacturer Delta Research for over a week with no success. Anyone know if the company still exists? I really like what I've heard about their product compared to Multi-FORTH, but I am now becoming a bit unsure about the whole thing. Does anyone know about the current status of the latest versions of both FORTHs? How do they stack up against each other in say ease of making windows and menus? Wilson Cheung Have lots of hardware but still no language.
louie@trantor.umd.edu (Louis A. Mamakos) (09/16/87)
I bought Multi-FORTH a while back, and have been pretty happy with it. I'm not a FORTH hack, but it is usefull to prototype ideas and hack around with. Better than BASIC. Creative Solutions (the creators of Multi-FORTH) have been really good about sending me notices of updates. I get a newsletter from them every quarter, I think. The cost of updates is reasonable too. For example, the last upgrade offer I received was $30.00 for the new software and new manual pages, or $49 for new manuals and disks. I get much better response and contact from Creative Solutions that I have had with any other software vendor that I've bought software for the Amiga from. Louis A. Mamakos WA3YMH Internet: louie@TRANTOR.UMD.EDU University of Maryland, Computer Science Center - Systems Programming
mikec@cbmvax.UUCP (Mike Colligon QA) (09/17/87)
In article <1126@vu-vlsi.UUCP> cheung@vu-vlsi.UUCP (Wilson Cheung) writes: >I've had J-FORTH back ordered from Go Amigo for over a week. They >claim that they have been trying to get into contact with the >manufacturer Delta Research for over a week with no success. Anyone >know if the company still exists? Sorry, can't help you here. >I really like what I've heard about their product compared to >Multi-FORTH, but I am now becoming a bit unsure about the whole thing. >Does anyone know about the current status of the latest versions of >both FORTHs? How do they stack up against each other in say ease of >making windows and menus? I am not very familiar with FORTH (Multi-FORTH is my first attept with the language) but I have taked to people who seem to know what they are taking about, and this is why I have Multi-FORTH. J-FORTH is JSR threaded, whereas Multi-FORTH is tokenized. J-FORTH produces larger code, but is slightly faster. The J-FORTH documentation is reported to be not very useful; I read the Multi-FORTH manual and then started writing little programs. YES, I read the documentation FIRST. :-) J-FORTH has not been set up for Amiga specific activities (opening windows, menus, etc.). Multi-FORTH has routines to open windows and do other Amiga things for you. The latest version 1.21, I believe, is reported to support all Amiga activities, all of the Amiga Includes, multitasking within applications, and spawning of tasks. (I guess I should send in for my upgrade to 1.21.) From what I have been told, J-FORTH does not support any of these things, but you can do them if you want to hack at it. > Wilson Cheung > Have lots of hardware but still no language. -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Michael Colligon uucp: {ihnp4|seismo|caip}!cbmvax!mikec | | Quality Assurance Dept. arpa: cbmvax!mikec@seismo.css.GOV | | Commodore Business Machines or mikec@cbmvax.UUCP@{seismo|harvard} | |------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | "I say we take off; nuke the site from orbit. Its the only way to be sure." | | Corporal Hicks | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
keithd@cadovax.UUCP (09/17/87)
In article <1126@vu-vlsi.UUCP> cheung@vu-vlsi.UUCP (Wilson Cheung) writes:
.I've had J-FORTH back ordered from Go Amigo for over a week. They
.claim that they have been trying to get into contact with the
.manufacturer Delta Research for over a week with no success. Anyone
.know if the company still exists?
.I really like what I've heard about their product compared to
.Multi-FORTH, but I am now becoming a bit unsure about the whole thing.
.Does anyone know about the current status of the latest versions of
.both FORTHs? How do they stack up against each other in say ease of
.making windows and menus?
On a similar bent, what ever happened to Mach-Forth (Mach-1?). Did
J-Forth take the wind out of their sales :-> and they decided not to
release an Amiga version?
Keith Doyle
# {ucbvax,decvax}!trwrb!cadovax!keithd Contel Business Systems 213-323-8170jesup@mizar.steinmetz (Randell Jesup) (09/19/87)
In article <2355@cbmvax.UUCP> mikec@cbmvax.UUCP (Mike Colligon QA) writes: >In article <1126@vu-vlsi.UUCP> cheung@vu-vlsi.UUCP (Wilson Cheung) writes: >>I've had J-FORTH back ordered from Go Amigo for over a week. They >>claim that they have been trying to get into contact with the >>manufacturer Delta Research for over a week with no success. Anyone >>know if the company still exists? If my info is correct, it's a small operation (garage), so they may not be there during the day. >about, and this is why I have Multi-FORTH. J-FORTH is JSR threaded, whereas >Multi-FORTH is tokenized. J-FORTH produces larger code, but is slightly >faster. The J-FORTH documentation is reported to be not very useful; I read >the Multi-FORTH manual and then started writing little programs. YES, I read >the documentation FIRST. :-) J-FORTH has not been set up for Amiga specific >activities (opening windows, menus, etc.). Multi-FORTH has routines to open ... >send in for my upgrade to 1.21.) From what I have been told, J-FORTH does not >support any of these things, but you can do them if you want to hack at it. First, JSR-threading vs. tokenized: JSR-threading (esp. with an optimizer) is considerably faster, not just a little. With the JSR-threaded forth I hacked up for the Amiga at one point, I got 9 sec for 10 iterations of the sieve, vs 7 for the then-current Lattice. The best I heard of for a 'regular' forth was in the 30-100 sec range (note 10 iterations, not 1). Tokenized is the slowest type of threading, (after indirect-threaded), JSR is the fastest. Second, my information is that J-Forth does have access to all the Amiga library functions. Please do not make authoritative statements on things you do not know. (Sorry if that's a bit nasty, but if you were the author of a package, and people who hadn't seen it said things like that, you'd be pretty upset, I suspect). Randell Jesup (Please use one of these paths for mail) sungod!jesup@steinmetz.UUCP (uunet!steinmetz!{sungod|crd}!jesup) jesup@ge-crd.ARPA