EnigmA Amiga Run 1999 January/EnigmA AMIGA RUN 33 (1999)(G.R. Edizioni)(IT)[!][issue 1999-01].iso/earcd/faq/computer-lang/forth-faq/part5.z/part5

Internet Message Format | 1999-01-01 | 23KB

Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!newsfeed.sgi.net!peerfeed.ncal.verio.net!Supernews60!supernews.com!Supernews73!supernews.com!Supernews69!www.taygeta.com!jon
From: [e-mail] (J. D. Verne)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth,comp.answers,news.answers
Subject: comp.lang.forth FAQ: Books & Periodicals (5 of 6)
Supersedes: <[e-mail]>
Followup-To: comp.lang.forth
Date: 2 Oct 1998 11:44:13 GMT
Organization: The Forth Interest Group
Lines: 535
Approved: [e-mail]
Distribution: world
Expires: 06 Nov 98 11:44:01
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
References: <[e-mail]>
Reply-To: [e-mail] (FAQ maintainers list)
NNTP-Posting-Host: 206.55.232.69
X-Trace: 907328653 6BUII4S.ME845CE37C usenet57.supernews.com
X-Complaints-To: [e-mail]
Keywords: FAQ FORTH FIG
Originator: [e-mail]
Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu comp.lang.forth:41653 comp.answers:33295 news.answers:141267

Posted-By: auto-faq 3.3 (Perl 5.004)
Archive-name: computer-lang/forth-faq/part5
Posting-Frequency: Monthly.  A how-to-find-the-FAQ article is posted weekly.

        comp.lang.forth Frequently Asked Questions, part 5 of 6
                   Books, Periodicals, and Tutorials

                       Chris Jakeman,  8 Mar. 1998

Changes since the previous posting are marked with a "|".
Please send your updates, comments or suggestions to me
at [e-mail].

------------------------------

Subject: Table of Contents

        [1] Periodicals
        [2] Standards Documents
        [3] Books - Organisation
        [4] Books - Tutorial
        [5] Books - Advanced
        [6] Books - Related
        [7] Suppliers
        [8] Indexes

------------------------------

Subject: [1] Periodicals

Forth Dimensions (ISSN 0884-0822)
  Published 6 issues/year to members; Marlin Ouverson, editor
  <[e-mail]>.  Subscriptions are US$45/year,
  plus US$15/year for foreign subscriptions.  Forth Interest Group,
  100 Dolores St, Suite 183, Carmel, CA 93923 USA,
  (408)-37-FORTH (373-6784) FAX: [phone]
  http://www.forth.org/fig.html

Brad Rodriguez <[e-mail]> writes:
  Forth Dimensions is the official publication of the Forth Interest
  Group, and is probably the foremost journal devoted exclusively to the
  Forth language.  It has been in publication since 1979.


FORML and euroForth Conference Proceedings
  Published annually by FIG at $40; Robert Reiling, director <??@??.??>.
  FORML is an educational forum for sharing and discussing new or
  unproved proposals intended to benefit Forth.  The first conference
  was held in 1980 and euroForth conferences began in 1992.  FIG (above)
  published an index for these.

Rochester Forth Conference
  Published annually by the Institute for Applied Research at $25 to
  $35 (depending on year); Larry Forsley, director <[e-mail]>.
  The conference covers all topics of Forth implementation and
  application.  Conferences began in 1981.
  See http://www-cis.paisley.ac.uk/forth/rfc/index.html for an index.


Does anyone have information about:
- conferences in Australia, China etc.?


Journal of Forth Application and Research (ISSN 0738-2022)
  Published nominally 4 issues/year; Lawrence P. Forsley, editor
  Institute for Applied Forth Research Inc.,  Box 1261, Annandale,
  VA 22003, USA.  E-mail to [e-mail]

Peter Knaggs <[e-mail]> writes:
  JFAR is the only peer-reviewed Forth journal.  It has been revived
  after a long hiatus, see
  http://www-cis.paisley.ac.uk/forth/jfar/index.html

  A new editor has not as yet been appointed, however Larry Forsley has
  taken over the reins again and is soliciting contributions to the
  Journal.


The Computer Journal
  Published 6 issues/year; Dave Baldwin, editor <[e-mail]>.
  Subscriptions are US$24/year in U.S., US$34/year Canada/Mexico (air
  mail), US$44/year foreign (air mail).  The Computer Journal, P.O. Box
  3900, Citrus Heights, CA 95611-3900 USA, telephone [phone], fax
  916-722-7480, email [e-mail], <http://www.psyber.com/~tcj>.

  Brad Rodriguez <[e-mail]> writes:
  The Computer Journal is not a Forth magazine; it is devoted to
  "classic", small, and non-mainstream computers.  It frequently carries
  articles about the Forth language.

Some national FIG groups publish their own periodicals, eg FIG UK and
Forth-Gesellschaft e.V.  See the FAQ: groups - part 6/6 for details.

------------------------------

Subject: [2] Standards Documents

For details of the Forth standards see the FAQ: general - part 1/6.

Published standards since 1978 are Forth 79 and Forth 83 from the Forth
Standards Team, ANS Forth - document X3.215-1994 - by the X3J14
Technical Committee and the Open Boot Standard.

The most recent standard, ANS Forth, defines a set of core words and
some optional extensions and takes care to allow great freedom in how
these words are implemented.  The range of hardware which can support an
ANS Forth Standard System is wider than any previous Forth standard and
probably wider than any programming language standard ever.  The
document includes 90 pages of annexes, providing an insight into the
decisions which had to be taken in drafting ANS Forth.

Copies of the standard cost $193 from the American National Standards
Institute Sales Department [phone], but the final draft of ANS
Forth is free and available (subject to copyright restrictions) at:
 ftp://ftp.uu.net/vendor/minerva/x3j14/dpans94.zip (Word For Windows, v2)
 ftp://ftp.uu.net/vendor/minerva/x3j14/dpans94.hqx (Word For Macintosh)
 ftp://taygeta.com/pub/Forth/Literature/dpans94a.zip (plain ASCII)

 ANS Forth was adopted by ISO as an international standard and published
 in June 97 as ISO/IEC 15145:1997


The Open Boot Standard defines the use of Forth to configure the
hardware attached to a computer at startup.  It is a token-threaded,
open standard closely modelled on ANS Forth used by Sun, IBM, Motorola
and Apple.  See also section 6 below:

IEEE Std 1275-1994 is recognised as an American National Standard:
"IEEE Standard for Boot (Initialization Configuration) Firmware:
Core Requirements and Practices, IEE Std 1275-1994, 262p,
ISBN 1-55937-426-8, about $60 from IEEE Computer Society at
  The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers Inc.
  345 East 47th Street, New York, NY 10017-2394, USA,
  voice 1-908-981-1393, fax: [phone], web: http://www.ieee.org,
  email [e-mail].

------------------------------

Subject: [3] Books - Organisation

There is not space here to provide an abstract to every book on Forth.
Instead this is a guide to those items which Forth users have found
most helpful, together with a list of other Forth books.  If you have
been especially helped by a book, please write me an abstract for it.

Where publications are not widely available, a supplier is listed.
Approximate prices are given as a guide.

------------------------------

Subject: [4] Books - Tutorial

"Starting FORTH: an introduction to the FORTH language and operating
system for beginners and professionals" Leo Brodie, Prentice Hall 1981
(2nd Ed., 1987), 346 pages, ISBN 0-13-843079-9, price $29.
An ANS version is in preparation.

  Chris Jakeman <[e-mail]> writes:
  This is the classic introduction to Forth, with helpful cartoons,
  exercises and solutions.  See also Brodie's "Thinking Forth" below.

  Glen Haydon writes "To try out the exercises, use MVP Forth which
  matches exactly except for ' (tick).  See www.theforthsource.com."=20
  Forth Guide, from Mountain View Press, is a guide to MVP Forth and
|  complements Starting Forth and is available on-line at
|  www.theforthsource.com.

  The exercises have also been ported to ANS Forth by Ben Hoyt.


| "The Forth Programmer's Handbook" E.Conklin & E.Rather, Forth Inc.
| 1997, 228 pages ISBN 0-9662156-0-5, price $50.

| This book is aimed at experienced programmers new to Forth and is
| more detailed and technical than "Starting Forth".  It is also a
| good reference for ANS Forth.  See www.forth.com for excerpts.


"The Forth Course" Richard Haskell, 156 pages with disk, price $25,
supplier FIG.

  FIG writes:
  This set of 11 lessons is designed to make it easy for you to learn
  Forth.  The material was developed over several years of teaching
  Forth as part of a senior/graduate course in desing of embedded
  software computer systems at Oakland Univeristy in Rochester,
  Michigan.


"FORTH: A Text And Reference" Mahon Kelly and Nick Spies,
Prentice-Hall, 1986, 487pps ISBN 0-13-326331-2 and in hardcover
0-13-326349-5, $19 and $25 from MMS below.

  Dick Miller <[e-mail]> writes:
  Very readable, covers beginner level through relatively advanced,
  including Assembler and 8087 math co-processor details, particularly
  appropriate to IBM PC and MMSFORTH, but very strong for general use
  as well.  The only college-level Forth textbook, complete with
  exercises and answers.


"Forth Applications In Engineering And Industry" John Matthews,
Ellis Horwood, 1989 ISBN 0-85312-659-3, price UKP35.
Currently out of print, this book may be available from libraries.

  MPE Ltd. <[e-mail]> writes:
  If you are starting out in the field of real-time control of hardware
  using Forth, then this book is for you!  This text covers most
  aspects of real-time control under Forth, from the very basics of
  what Forth is, through to control loops and digital implementations
  of analogue filters.


"Embedded Controller FORTH for the 8051 family" William H. Payne,
Academic Press, 1990, 511 pages with DOS disks, ISBN 0125475705,
price $80 book, $20 disk.

  J. Fulcher, Computing Reviews, 9105-0316 writes:
  ... This hobbyist-style book goes into considerable detail regarding
  the implementation of FORTH on the i8051 family of microcontrollers
  (down to circuit diagrams, PCB layouts, and wire-wrap board
  schematics) ... Almost two-thirds of this book is devoted to
  appendices -- 19 in all.  These primarily contain code listings ...=20

  Paul Frenger, SIGFORTH, 2(4):31-32, 1990 reviews the book and gives
  it 10/10.  Notes that the book contains everything you need: all the
  source is there as well as all the circuit diagrams.  There are 19
  appendices, which make up half of the book, and contain things like:
  the source to the 8086 Forth, 8051 Forth, full screen editor code,
  8051 disassembler code, Nautilus metacompiler, 8086/8051
  meta-assemblers, Forth decompilers and much more.


See also the FAQ: on-line - part 2/6, for tutorials and Forth systems to
try them on.

Other titles are:
  93, Koller, FORTH und FORTH-Prozessoren, expert-verlag, 3-8169-0785-7
  90, Zech, Forth for Professionals, Ellis Horwood, 0-13-327040-8
  88, Anderson and Tracy, Mastering Forth
  87, Henric-Coll, La Practique du Forth avec Hector I
  87, Zech, Die Programmiersprache FORTH, Franzis-Verlag GmbH Muenchen,
      Recommended by Dusan Vukic <[e-mail]>
      and Andreas Jung <[e-mail]>
      It describes mainly the Fig-Forth model and goes deeply
      into details. The dialects Forth-79 and Forth-83 are also described
      in a special chapter.
  85, Bishop, Exploring Forth, Prentice-Hall, 0-246-12188-2
  85, Burnap, Forth, The Fourth-Generation Language
  85, Olney and Benson, Fundamental Forth, Pan Books
  85, Salman, Forth
  84, Anderson, Mastering Forth, Bowie (yes, same title as Tracy above :)
  84, Armstrong, Learning Forth
  84, Chirlian, Beginning Forth
  84, Lampton, Forth for Beginners
  84, Oakley, Forth For Micros, Newnes Technical Books, 0-408-01366-4
  84, Wainwright, BASIC & Forth In Parallel, Babani (Pub.), 0-85934-113-5
  83, de Grandis-Harrison, Forth on the BBC Microcomputer, 0-907876-06-4
  83, McCade, Forth Fundamentals, Matrix
  83, Winfield, The Complete Forth, Sigma Technical Press, 0-905104-22-6
  82, Hogan, Discover Forth, Osborne
  82, Scanlon, Forth Programming, Sams
  81, Katzan, Invitation to Forth, Petrocelli Books
  81, Knecht, Introduction To Forth, Sams
  ??, Hendtlass, Real-Time Forth (on-line only http://www.forth.org/fig.htm=
l)
  ??, Pitman, Pocket Guide to Forth


  MVP-Forth Series
  1 - All About Forth, '90, Haydon
  2 - MVP Forth source listings, '83?, Haydon & Kuntz
  3 - Integer and Floating Point, '83, Koopman
  4 - Expert System, '84, Park
  5 - File Management System, '84, Moreton
  6 - Expert Tutorial, '84, Derick
  7 - Forth Guide, '85, Haydon
  8 - IBM Professional Application Development System, '85, Wempe
  9 - Word Processor And Calculator, Programmers Guide, '85, Wempe
 10 - Word Processor And Calculator, File & Print source, '85, Wempe

------------------------------

Subject: [5] Books - Advanced

 "Scientific FORTH: a modern language for scientific computing"
  Julian V. Noble, Mechum Banks Publishing, 1992, 300 pages,
  ISBN 0-9632775-0-2, price $50 incl. disk.
 (1st Ed. sold out, FIG still has a few, also Peer-To-Peer
  Communications Inc, San Jose CA at $40 without disk)

  Julian V. Noble <[e-mail]> writes:
  While not intended for the Forth novice, Scientific FORTH contains a
  good many serious examples of Forth programming style, useful programs,
  as well as innovations intended to simplify number crunching in Forth.
  It can now be found in the libraries of several major universities
  (e.g. Yale, U. of Chicago and Rockefeller U.) and government and
  industrial laboratories (e.g. Fermilab and Motorola).  It comes with a
  disk containing all the programs discussed in the book.


"Thinking FORTH" Leo Brodie, Prentice Hall, 1984, ??? pages,
ISBN: 0-13-917576-8 and 0-13-917568-7 (pbk.), price $20.

  Dick Miller <[e-mail]> writes:
  This is a top-notch book on strategy, and always was our [MMS] top
  recommendation for the SECOND book, after you bought a textbook to
  learn the Forth words.  This one teaches you which ones to select
  when, how to hone your habits for better Forth (and other)
  programming, etc.  It's been unavailable for a year or two, and has=20
  been reprinted at last!  MMS has worked to reduce its price from a=20
  proposed $40 (in paperback), and is pleased to offer it at $19.95.


"Forth: The Next Step" Ron Geere, Addison-Wesley, 1986, 89 pages,
ISBN 0-201-18050-2, price ??.

  Stephen J. Bevan <[e-mail]> writes:
  As the title might suggest, this is not for the complete beginner.
  It is aimed at those who have mastered the idea of reverse polish
  ... etc. and now want to do something a bit more complicated.
  Covers areas like: using double length numbers, formatting,
  reading/writing values from/to a port and `infinite' precision
  integers.


"Object-oriented Forth - Implementation of Data Structures" Dick Pountain
Academic Press, 1987, 108 pages, ISBN 0-12-563570-2, price $35.

  Chris Jakeman <[e-mail]> writes:
  Pountain <[e-mail]> is a Byte contributing editor.  His "book
  sets out to develop systematic ways of constructing complex data
  structures in Forth ... with a few easy to use syntax extensions to
  the language."  Efficient techniques for records and arrays are
  presented and refined with great clarity.  Objects are built from
  these by adding methods with a small change to the dictionary
  structure.  The techniques are demonstrated using lists, a heap and
  a dynamic simulation of queuing at the bank.


"Forth: The New Model - A Programmer's Handbook" Jack Woehr,
M&T Publishing, 1992, 315 pages, ISBN: 0-13-036328-6, DOS disk included,
price $45.

  Describes features of ANS Forth and how to use it to write portable
  Forth programs.  Published 2 years before the Standard was approved,
  it predicts the Standard very closely.  Currently the only book about
  ANS Forth.

  Ong Hian Leong <[e-mail]> writes:
  The author is (as at time of print) VP of Forth Interest Group and
  member of X3J14, so he presumably knows what he's talking about. 8-)


Threading mechanisms:
  Stephen Pelc <[e-mail]> says "The best analysis of the
  tradeoffs of threaded code and memory performance can be found in
  Interpretation and Instruction Path Coprocessing by Eddy H. Debaere
  and Jan M. Van Campenhout, MIT Press, ISBN 0-262-04107-3"

  Mike Coughlin <[e-mail]> writes: The best article ever
  published on the subject, "Varieties of Threaded Code for Language
  Implementation" by Terry Riter and Gregory Walker, Byte Magazine,
  SEP. 1980 (not in August which was a special Forth issue) and
  reprinted by FIG along with the other Forth articles from Byte.
  Also available on the Byte CD.

  Also see Anton Ertl's paper at http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/
  forth/threaded-code.html


"Designing and Programming Personal Expert Systems" Townsend, Carl,
 Feucht, Dennis, TAB Books Inc, 1986, ISBN: 0-8306-2692-1.  Not in print.

   Contains LISP and Prolog emulations in Forth, including a unification
   algorithm.  It also has some minimum distance classifier code.

   Paul Frenger <[e-mail]> writes:
   I just got the Forth Archive CD/ROM from MVP and it's great!
   Glen Haydon also has an excellent collection of Forth books and software,
   much of it seminal (ie: ancient), that FIG no longer carries or never
   carried. His "All About Forth" reference is the single most useful
   Forth-internals book I have ever seen."


| "eForth Implementation Guide" Dr.C.H. Ting, available from FIG, 54 pages,
| $25

|   Dave Taliaferro <[e-mail]> writes:
|   This is a good book for building your own Forth system.  I used this to
|   port eForth to a DSP.  Teaches how to build Forth from assembly macros
|   and primitives. There are eForth versions for several processors.
=20

Other titles are:
  90, Zech, Forth for Professionals, Ellis Horwood, 0-13-327040-8
        from Computer Literacy on 408-435-0744.  includes a discussion on
        threading mechanisms.
  87, Dr.Dobb's Toolbook of Forth, Vols I & II, M&T Publishing
  86, Reynolds, Advanced Forth, Sigma
  86, Terry, Library of Forth Routines and Utilities
  85, Olney and Benson, Forth Techniques, Pan Books, 0-330-28961-6
  85, Roberts, Forth Applications, ELCOMP Publishing, 3-88963-061-8
  84, Feierbach, Forth Tools and Applications, Reston
  81, Loeliger, Threaded Interpretive Languages, Byte Books, 0-07-038360-x

-----------------------------

Subject: [6] Books - Related

"The Evolution Of FORTH - An Unusual Language" C.H.Moore, Byte,
Aug. 1980.

  Forth's history by its creator.


"The Evolution of Forth"  E.D.Rather, D.R.Colburn, C.H.Moore,
ACM SIGPLAN Notices, Volume 28, No.3 March 1993, 46 pages.

  An larger and more recent history of Forth by the early pioneers.
  This is also available on the Forth Inc. home page at
|  http://www.forth.com


  "OpenBoot Command Reference" part no: 800-6076-11, revision A, March 1993
  and
  "Writing FCode Programs" Sun, sold by the Forth Interest Group.=20
  It's $50-$60.


"Stack Computers: The New Wave" Phillip Koopman, John Wiley & Sons, 1989,
ISBN 0-470-21467-8, price $82.

  Stephen J. Bevan <[e-mail]> writes:
  This isn't a book about Forth, rather it is about computers that
  potentially execute Forth very efficiently.  The book contains a
  detailed overview of a number of Forth chips as well as a potted
  history of what seems to be every stack-based computer ever
  designed.

  Paul Frenger, SIGFORTH, 1(3):28-29, 1989 writes:
  Overall, I highly recommend this book to anyone who programs in
  Forth or any other high level language of whatever variety, or who
  is interested in the hardware details of Forth engines or the
  pitfalls of conventional CPU design.

  The author <[e-mail]> reports (July 96):
  My stack computer architecture book has recently gone out of print,
  but I still receive occasional inquiries as to availability.  The
  former publisher, Ellis Horwood Ltd., has graciously returned the
  copyright ownership to me.  So, I have decided to place the book
  on-line at http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~koopman/stack_computers/index.html

  The book contains, among other things, case studies of seven late-80's
  stack computers.  Perhaps there is renewed relevance with Java (and,
  perhaps not -- that question has already been debated at length).
  The book is still copyrighted, but is readable in its entirety from
  the above URL (see the copyright statement at that URL for details).

  I don't have time, and there doesn't seem to be market demand at this
  point, for a revised edition.  However, if you e-mail me pointers to
  web sites that describe newer stack computer information, I will
  consider putting them in the on-line supplement as time permits.


  "More on Forth Engines" Dr.C.H.Ting, Editor
   For a description of each issue see:
   http://www.dnai.com/~jfox/offete.html


"Write Your Own Programming Language Using C++" Norman Smith,
Wordware Publishing, Plano, Texas. 108 pages, DOS disk included,
ISBN 1-55622-264-5, price: $15.

  Norman E. Smith <[e-mail]> writes:
  This book presents a minimal Forth implementation called Until, for
  UNconventional Threaded Interpretive Language.  Until is designed
  to be used as a macro language embedded in other applications.  It
  can both call and be called by other C functions.

  Chris Jakeman <[e-mail]> writes:
  Continued development has enhanced Until since this publication.
  For details of the latest public version, see FAQ: system - part 4/6.


| "Thinking Postscript" Glenn Reid, out-of-print but now on-line at
| http://www.rightbrain.com/pages/books.html"

|    Olivier Lefevre <[e-mail]> writes:
|    This classic book is not a cookbook but instead goes into
|    the philosophy of PostScript, which has much in common with Forth.

------------------------------

Subject: [7] Suppliers
=20
Brad Rodriguez <[e-mail]> writes:
Most of these books and conference proceedings are available from the
Forth Interest Group, P.O. Box 2154, Oakland, CA 94621 USA,
telephone [phone], fax [phone].

Other suppliers include:
  FORTH Inc. - email to [e-mail]

   Miller Microcomputer Services (MMS) - email to [e-mail]
     http://www.gis.net/~dmiller/mmsforth.html

|  Mountain View Press (MVP) - email to [e-mail]
   Box 429, Star Route 2 La Honda, CA 94020, voice: 415-747-0760

and, in the UK,
  MicroProcessor Engineering Ltd.(MPE) - email to [e-mail]

Why not call them for list of their Forth publications in print?

------------------------------

  Indexes: [8] Indexes

  Currently there is no single on-line index to books or published
  papers about Forth.

  FIG supplies a printed index of FORML and euroForml papers.

  http://www.bookshop.co.uk/SEARCH.HTM finds 45 books but omits some
  important ones like Scientific Forth.

  Peter Knaggs maintains a growing on-line database (nearly 600 references)
  to papers from euroFORML, euroForth and Rochester conferences, also
  books and standards.  Use http://www-cis.paisley.ac.uk/forth/search.html
  to search the database (also available as a BibTeX bibliographic file from
    http://www-cis.paisley.ac.uk/forth/bib/forth.bib.gz  Gnu Zip (167K) =20
    http://www-cis.paisley.ac.uk/forth/bib/forth.zip      PK Zip (169K))