My history with Forth & stack machines
My VLSI tools take a chip from conception through testing. Perhaps 500 lines of source code. Cadence, Mentor Graphics do the same, more or less. With how much source/object code?
This is a personal account of my experience implementing and using the Forth programming language and the stack machine architecture. "Implementing and using" – in that order, pretty much; a somewhat typical order, as will become apparent.
It will also become clear why, having defined the instruction set of a processor designed to run Forth that went into production, I don't consider myself a competent Forth programmer (now is the time to warn that my understanding of Forth is just that – my own understanding; wouldn't count on it too much.)
Why the epigraph about Chuck Moore's VLSI tools? Because Forth is very radical. Black Square kind of radical. An approach to programming seemingly leaving out most if not all of programming:
...Forth does it differently. There is no syntax, no redundancy, no typing. There are no errors that can be detected. ...there are no parentheses. No indentation. No hooks, no compatibility. ...No files. No operating system.
