On my Web site: stuff about FORTH. FORTH was one of many computing languages used in early microcomputing. It was implemented in a few thousands of bytes, and as an interpreter it could be extended. Memory was expensive so these were good attributes. It was also a monitor program; a number of 1980's commercial computers had a FORTH boot monitor.

COSMAC 1802
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www.retrotechnology.com/memship/figforth_1802.html

FIG produced a series of 8-bit FORTHs in the late 1970's.

www.retrotechnology.com/memship/hhc_forth.html

Hand-Held Computer (HHC) he constructed in the late 1970's from a COSMAC 1802 processor and supported with a FORTH-79 based monitor and calculator program he created. I and others disassembled his FORTH and binary, without the Windows development system he abandoned later.

www.retrotechnology.com/memship/8th.html

A reduced FORTH for the 1802, which he called "8th".

http://www.retrotechnology.com/memship/amsat.html

 IPS is a threaded language and develoment enviroment, similar to Forth. It was used to develop the programming on the Oscar Phase 3 satellites which used 1802's and later other processors. These were early amateur-radio satellites. IPS was in use for other satellite development.

http://www.retrotechnology.com/memship/mem_basys.html

A simple 1802 wheeled robot which ran on BASIC or 8th.

Intel 8080
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http://www.retrotechnology.com/restore/prob_solv.html

I resurrected a S-100 Problem Solver System. I noted the boot diskette had the STOIC operating environment. I recalled STOIC as one of many packages distributed with CP/M programs; Both the recent and prior owners had worked with the STOIC language. Rich explained the FORTH roots of STOIC and we discussed our histories with FORTH. [Links about STOIC are at the end of the Web page.]

http://www.retrotechnology.com/dri/kildall_interview_atwork.htm

Gary Kildall has an opinion about FORTH and its adherents. Kildall's academic work was in computing languages; of course PL/M was his creation.  He developed CP/M and founded Digital Research.

HErb Johnson

Awesome highlights of your research, Herb!
Forgot about STOIC, and that Problem solver with the early split screen video card is fabulous. (The fact that the card company
made a frame grabber in that era is very interesting too)
On Kildall: I was hoping he had commented on the language's real strengths/weaknesses...  he almost starts a war, but to his credit he did stick to answering
the question he was asked...

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INTERVIEWER: What do you mean when you say programming is a religious experience for a lot of people?

KILDALL: Well, if you talk about programming to a group of programmers who use the same language, they can become almost evangelistic about the language. They form a tight-knit community, hold to certain beliefs, and follow certain rules in their programming. It's like a church with a programming language for a Bible.

FORTH is a good example; it's a programming language that is probably close to being a religious experience for many people. When FORTH first came out, its disciples claimed any algorithm could be done ten times faster. That was a typical claim. If you argued that point or any other, you found yourself talking to a brick wall and you definitely weren't allowed in the church. Now I don't mean to be derogatory about the people who use that language. It's a very supportive group and a very effective language, but the discussions were not based on reason. They were based on belief. By saying this, I'll probably get about a thousand letters about FORTH and the religious experience people are having over it. But I'm not putting myself in a special category either; I can preach about the wonders of LISP all day.
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