Forth n00b here.

I was reading at
http://www.ultratechnology.com/essence.htm
such statements as: "This is probably one of the greatest differences
between Forth and C. C was designed to write an OS in which the concept
is that everything is a file. Databases are built using the file system
and C structures as the containers. In Forth we have the virtual memory
system and dictionary instead, the concept of extensible database below
file system level."

and: "How would you implement C style structures which are essential to
my work?" Chuck's reply was his famous, "I wouldn't."

So, how would I, for instance, go about implementing a database in
Forth? Take, for example, that I have 2 tables: departments and
employees. Each department has a name and many employees. Each employee
has a name, department, and salary. Maybe I would want to see the total
salary for a department, or find an employees salary based on his name.

To make things a little easier, let's suppose that I can define the
contents of the database statically - by which I mean through Forth files.

and: "How would you implement C style structures which are essential to
my work?" Chuck's reply was his famous, "I wouldn't."

On Oct 20, 1:12špm, Mark Carter <m... at (no spam) privacy.net> wrote:
and: "How would you implement C style structures which are essential to
my work?" Chuck's reply was his famous, "I wouldn't."

C-style structures are easy in Forth.

Hugh Aguilar <hugoagui... at (no spam) rosycrew.com> writes:
On Oct 20, 1:12¹pm, Mark Carter <m... at (no spam) privacy.net> wrote:
and: "How would you implement C style structures which are essential to
my work?" Chuck's reply was his famous, "I wouldn't."

C-style structures are easy in Forth.

"C" style structures are not (ever tried bit fields?), Oberon style are.

--
HE CE3OH...

For example, in the late 80's
we developed a large database system for the KKIA airport at Riyadh,
Saudi Arabia...

On Oct 20, 2:35 pm, Elizabeth D Rather <erat... at (no spam) forth.com> wrote:
For example, in the late 80's
we developed a large database system for the KKIA airport at Riyadh,
Saudi Arabia...

What has Forth Inc. done recently?

I don't see a whole lot of advertising for Forth programmers being
done.

Hugh Aguilar wrote:
On Oct 20, 2:35 pm, Elizabeth D Rather <erat... at (no spam) forth.com> wrote:
For example, in the late 80's
we developed a large database system for the KKIA airport at Riyadh,
Saudi Arabia...

What has Forth Inc. done recently?

I don't see a whole lot of advertising for Forth programmers being
done.

Major projects recently have involved a series of products for GE
Multilin (http://www.forth.com/resources/appNotes/app-GE-Multilin.html),
a research project involving sensors on elite swimmers to monitor their
form for training purposes.

Cheers,
Elizabeth

On Oct 20, 1:12 pm, Mark Carter <m... at (no spam) privacy.net> wrote:

and: "How would you implement C style structures which are essential to
my work?" Chuck's reply was his famous, "I wouldn't."

C-style structures are easy in Forth. The question of how to do this
came up a couple of days ago in the "Questions about Forth Philosophy"
thread:http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.forth/browse_thread/thread/f...
Myself and another guy both provided code to do this.

By "Chuck," I assume that you mean Chuck Moore. His quote must have
been taken out of context, as it seems to imply that Forth isn't
capable of C-style structs, but any novice can easily do this. I've
read interviews of him and noticed that he tends to be somewhat
flippant, which results in quotes like this floating around and
providing ammunition for anti-Forth C enthusiasts.

Chuck Moore has gotten involved in some pretty far-out chip technology
without much general-purpose applicability. As for myself, I'm pretty
focused on mundane chips such as the PIC24, and I think that most of
the other people on c.l.f. are too. I don't mean to say that building
custom hardware ("Forth engines") isn't cool --- I wrote the MFX cross-
compiler for the MiniForth that was built on a Lattice-1048isp --- and
that was the coolest program that I've ever written. I'm just saying
that this kind of technology isn't mainstream at this time.

On Oct 20, 1:12 pm, Mark Carter <m... at (no spam) privacy.net> wrote:
and: "How would you implement C style structures which are essential to
my work?" Chuck's reply was his famous, "I wouldn't."

C-style structures are easy in Forth. The question of how to do this
came up a couple of days ago in the "Questions about Forth Philosophy"
thread: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.forth/browse_thread/thread/f1ff4be6f50c63c0#
Myself and another guy both provided code to do this.

By "Chuck," I assume that you mean Chuck Moore. His quote must have
been taken out of context, as it seems to imply that Forth isn't
capable of C-style structs, but any novice can easily do this. I've
read interviews of him and noticed that he tends to be somewhat
flippant, which results in quotes like this floating around and
providing ammunition for anti-Forth C enthusiasts.

Chuck Moore has gotten involved in some pretty far-out chip technology
without much general-purpose applicability. As for myself, I'm pretty
focused on mundane chips such as the PIC24, and I think that most of
the other people on c.l.f. are too. I don't mean to say that building
custom hardware ("Forth engines") isn't cool --- I wrote the MFX cross-
compiler for the MiniForth that was built on a Lattice-1048isp --- and
that was the coolest program that I've ever written. I'm just saying
that this kind of technology isn't mainstream at this time.

Chuck Moore even wrote a BASIC compiler in Forth, long ago. For fun,
not a serious undertaking, just to prove it could be done, not out of
necessity.

On Nov 9, 10:38 am, Coos Haak <chfo... at (no spam) hccnet.nl> wrote:
Chuck Moore even wrote a BASIC compiler in Forth, long ago. For fun,
not a serious undertaking, just to prove it could be done, not out of
necessity.

He did? Seems like an odd thing for him to waste his time on.
Reference?

Chuck didn't say "I couldn't".  He said "I wouldn't".  Sure you can
create C style structures in Forth.

 > Forth Dimensions volume 3 page 175 has an article about the compiler by
 > Michael Perry, including a listing. It says the original was
presented at
 > 1981 FORML as "BASIC Compiler in FORTH". You can find the FD article at
 > forth.org (SVFIG).

Right.  I found it tricky to determine which issue in volume 3
contains page 175, so here's the link:

   http://www.forth.org/fd/FD-VO3N6.pdf

I've noticed that in C, addressing items in a data structure requires
a different syntax than addressing items that aren't in a data
structure. If you have data that you might have multiple instances of
someday, you might want to use a structure from the outset. This leads
to a habit of using structures "just because". In Forth, there is no
such restriction. You can add as much indirection to a pointer as you
want without being forced to change syntax.