Forth is a computer programming language based on Reverse Polish Notation (RPN), e.g. in arithmetics like HP calculators:
1 2 + 3 * 4 / ( comments start with open paren and extend to close paren)
compares to Tcl's
[expr {(1+2)*3)/4}] ;# commentsor, using Math Operators as Commands,
[/ [* [+ 1 2] 3] 4]
FORTH in tcl anyone?
Chuck Moore created FORTH in 1970. An interesting article about FORTH appeared in Byte magazine [L1 ] .
Related to this is 1% the code a shocking paper by Chuck Moore.
Tutorials
Leo Brodie's "Starting Forth" as a starkit for Windows/Linux/Solaris can be found here [L5 ], based on the web version of the book at [L6 ].
AK This starkit seems to need a package 'scripdoc', which is not in the starkit.
Often over the years, FORTH and Tcl have been compared because of the mindset in both to write lots of procs/words to do one's work.
Several Forths have bound to Tk for their GUI toolkit needs. V6 [L7 ] is a commercial Forth based on Gforth available for Linuxes (and *BSD? and MacOS X?).
Zarutian 24. september 2006: Does an Tcl interpreter in Forth exists?
Zarutian 27. september 2006: Or do I have to write one?
wdb Please yes!
Zarutian 20. june 2007: Hmm... that would require Forth words for:
and something more probably.
tb 17. july 2007 - @wdb: Do you think of a string stack? How much of a FORTH system would be appropriate for emulation? A true 2stack machine with a "Dictionary space", an "Inner interpreter", an "Outer interpreter", compilers and defining words, complete with its own command loop? -- wdb Not a string stack, but some creations with <builds ... does>. All strings shall be unique, identified by their memory address, and be immutable. Depending on operations, values internally implemented with multi-pointer (one for string-processing, one for list-processing, one for float-processing), where not-used or outdated pointers are reset to null. -- I'm just dreaming of a very high-performant Tcl ...
escargo - It might be interesting to have a PostScript[L8 ] system instead; PostScript is both a stack-based VM and has strings and dictionaries.
LEG 20070919: just implemented f4t. Why would you want to do string processing on stacks in Tcl? Why would you want to implement just another graphics language in Tcl. Both things are handled fine in Tcl/Tk. IMO Forth in Tcl should enhance, complement Tcl in an area where Tcl needs it or where Forth functionality is nice to have.