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[ColorForth] Let's talk philosophy


>
> You may want to make your Linux sources available.
>
> A lot of folks prefer not to use Windows/DOS.

For the benefit of the new folks, Mark's linux work can be found at:
http://www.oakland.edu/~maslicke/colorforth/

For an 'everything colorForth' try the URL:
http://www.users.qwest.net/~loveall/c4index.htm

I try to keep up-to-date but haven't seen anything new since the end of
August. If you have something new, post it here and it will included on that
page (hint, hint, Chuck).

Regards,
Terry Loveall

> On Fri, Nov 30, 2001 at 11:11:51AM -0500, Mark Slicker wrote:
> >
> >
> > On Wed, 28 Nov 2001, Jack Johnson wrote:
> >
> > >
> > > So, to generate some traffic in this mostly quiet mailing list I
thought you
> > > might be willing to share your ideas with the rest of us.  Why
colorForth?
> > > What brought you here?  Not only "Where do you want to go today?" but
where
> > > do you want to be tomorrow?  And how do you get there from here?
> > >
> >
> > Well, I'm a Computer Science and Mathematics student, and I'm quite
> > interested in free software. The internet and GNU/Linux are
revolutionary
> > things. Software that is collaboratively built, and collectively
> > enjoyed. While the concept is very nice, I was becoming increasing
> > frustrated with the implmentation. So, I wanted to build my own system.
> >
> > I had heard of the lisp machines, about the interactive programming
> > environment. That is what I wanted to create, a flexiable, source code
> > based system, with an interactive programming environment. I had done
many
> > searches on the internet, however I was unable to find this, except for
> > unavailable research systems, and some mention of lisp machines. I was
> > previously unaware of the Forth environments, however historically they
> > probably predated the lisp environments.
> >
> > One day I saw mention of Chuck's site and colorForth, I was very
> > excited. Not only did it fit my requirements, it had many
> > interesting ideas, and it's very much beyond what I probably could have
> > created myself. Creating a system requires a large breadth of
experience,
> > I had parts I understood very well, but not the whole. colorForth is
> > truely a master's work, a very fine tool.
> >
> > Not to long after I discovered Chuck's site, the first release of
> > colorForth was made. Since then, I've been working exclusively with it.
I
> > wrote a utility to convert the assembler source to work with it in Linux
> > (I don't have Windows). In practice I haven't had to modify the kernal
too
> > much, only some floopy disk modifications. It's still nice to have.
> >
> > What I would like to see colorForth become is a highley collaberative
> > environment. Currently most of us just publish code on our respective
> > sites. This code needs to be self contained, where it might be the case
> > some words are common or there exists common structure which can be
> > factored. What would be nice is a system much like cvs, so a small group
> > can work on the same colorForth and comit changes to a database, and
these
> > changes can filter into your own colorForth. Such a system could be much
> > better than CVS. CVS is grounded in Unix, being file system based and
> > reporting character based changes. A colorForth CVS can be word based,
> > and understand the semantic differences between colorForths making
changes
> > to your colorForth accordingly.
> >
> > To facilate the collaberative process, a memory alocator might be
> > needed, so you don't step on someone else's memory. Otherwise there is a
> > few applications which I would like. A web browser and e-mail,
> > certainly. I'd like drivers for my ethernet, graphics, and mouse.
However,
> > I'll wait to do this, since Chuck is bringing some of these into source,
> > which will make it easier to modify.
> >
> > I'm probably unlike a lot of you here in that I was not very much into
> > Forth before discovering colorForth. I had one class which we built a
> > Forth chip in vhdl on an FPGA, however they didn't explain any of the
> > philosophy which led to its design. I just assumed this was how
> > modern chips were designed. Actually they never even introduced Forth or
> > Chuck until it was time to program it. Forth was shown as a higher level
> > language which translated into the instructions our chip
> > understood, although the instructions were Forth too.
> >
> > I really do like Forth now. It's a very elegant language, and most
> > importantly it's a lot of fun to program with. I get the same enjoyment
> > from colorForth, as doing Mathematics, playing Chess, or playing music.
> >
> > Mark
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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> >
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>

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