Subject: Forth portability

From: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 1 May 2011 08:27:29 -0400 (EDT)

All three of the major dialects of Forth - TI, Wycove, and TurboForth have  
applications to transfer files from one format to another. You can write 
native  Forth code as a DF128 file using the Forth editor and then save the 
resultant  blocks as a DV80 text file. The converse is also true.You can take 
a DV80 file  written on the F'WEB program editor, for example, and import is 
as one or more  executable Forth Blocks (screens) for immediate use with no 
further  modification. 
 
TI Forth has the most cumbersome utilities to perform this function needing 
 to load about a dozen blocks (screens) directly or indirectly to perform 
this  task. TurboForth is the most elegant with the load of 1-1/2 blocks to 
do the  same two functions. I have these and some other applications load as 
TurboForth  boots which makes them immediately available for use.
 
As far as revision dates are concerned, I usually put the date (and  
sometimes the time) in a comment line at the beginning of a block. I even put  the 
author and date I receive the application on those that I get in exchange  
from other users.
 
Forth is flexible - your only limit is your imagination. It is portable -  
from one file format to another. It is fast! It does not have the rigid  
constraints of c99 or A/L as to what initial format in which the source code  
must be written.  
 
Bob Carmany