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Whoa..I'm definitely adding Forth to my "to-learn" list. The concept of a stack-based programming language is completely alien to me and would definitely be worth exploring further. On a side note, is it just me or is Forth's readiblity really low?

[Thanks a lot by the way!]




My pleasure. :)

It takes some time to get used to dealing with the stack. The stack plus the fact that there aren't many "structural" symbols like the parentheses and curly braces of ALGOL-derived languages can certainly make Forth harder to skim at first. On the other hand, idiomatic Forth code should be factored into many very small definitions. Aggressive decomposition wins back some readability since everything will be in tiny bite-sized chunks, and it promotes reusing code too. I think personal preference is part of it.

If you're serious about learning more, I'd recommend Leo Brodie's Starting Forth: http://www.forth.com/starting-forth/sf1/sf1.html

I hate plugging my own projects, but if you check out my profile I also have several Forth-related things on github.


Another stack based language worth learning might be Postscript (even if only to make your coworkers wonder why such a small file takes such a long time to print: http://warp.povusers.org/MandScripts/ps.html or http://www.physics.uq.edu.au/people/foster/postscript.html )




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