I use Asyst (which is near FORTH) extensively and some ZEN, Pygmy, a little FPC, all on the X86 platform. Don’t have any FORTHs that you pay for (though first got into Asyst that way).
I HATE GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACES AND ALL THIS NEWFANGLED CRAP THAT BREAKS.
But FORTH seems so beautiful, so elegant, in my little experience. Maybe a new version that makes more use of big computers with cheap memory would be nice. Something you can still buy manuals for. Something people are still supporting. It’d be worth it.
Are there any especially like this? Any strongly code-based ones with solid reliability, not alot of tacked-on junk? Any fans that can explain their favorites?
Also looking at the FIG pages, the Forth Web Ring, and some similar resources.
For standards compliance, source availability, and price, it would be tough to beat GForth on any platform.
[ul]
[li]It is ANS-compliant (and is as a design goal, so it shall continue to be), which is important because standards-compliance lets other people use (and fix) your sources in meaningful ways.[/li][li]It is text-oriented, as almost all GNU Project programs are, so it will not incorporate a GUI unless you write one for it.[/li][li]It integrates well with the Emacs text-editor/development environment, something that is nice beyond description.[/li][li]It is free to download for almost all systems, Win32 included.[/li][li]Since it is GPLed, the source code is available by definition.[/li][li]GForth has a pretty good manual available for free with the download. Nobody is saying it’s perfect, but it’s pretty damned good even for the newbie.[/li][li]GForth is actively maintained. Email addresses are in the docs.[/li][/ul]I don’t know how much closer to `ideal’ a Forth implementation can come.
