comp.lang.forth Frequently Asked Questions, part 5 of 6 Books, Periodicals, and Tutorials Chris Jakeman, 28 July 1996 Changes since the previous posting are marked with a "|". Please send your updates, comments or suggestions to me at cjakeman@apvpeter.demon.co.uk. ------------------------------ 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 . Subscriptions are US$40/year (before March 1, 1996), plus US$15/year for foreign subscriptions. Forth Interest Group, P.O. Box 2154, Oakland, CA 94621 USA, 'phone 510-893-6784, fax 510-535-1295. Advertising sales: 'phone 805-946-2272. Brad Rodriguez 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 is in its 17th year of publication. 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 . The conference covers all topics of Forth implementation and application. Conferences began in 1981. See http://maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca/~ns/96roch.html for this year. Does anyone have information about: - conferences in Australia, China etc.? - "More on Forth Engines" Dr.C.H.Ting, Editor? Journal of Forth Application and Research (ISSN 0738-2022) Published nominally 4 issues/year; Len Zettel, editor . Journal of Forth Application and Research, 70 Elmwood Avenue, Rochester, NY 14611 USA, telephone 716-235-0168. Brad Rodriguez writes: JFAR is the only peer-reviewed Forth journal. It is currently being revived after a long hiatus; the last issue was published in 1994. Len Zettel has assumed the post of editor, and is soliciting contributions to the Journal. The Computer Journal Published 6 issues/year; Dave Baldwin, editor . 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 916-722-4970, fax 916-722-7480, email tcj@psyber.com, . Brad Rodriguez 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 (212) 642-4900, 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) 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. IEEE Std 1275-1994 is recognised as an American National Standard: "IEEE Standard for Boot (Initialization Configuration) Firmware: Core Requirements and Practices, 262p, ISBN 1-55937-426-8, about $60 from IEEE Computer Society, email stds.info@ieee.org. ------------------------------ 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 0-13-842922-7, price $29. Chris Jakeman writes: This is the classic introduction to Forth, with helpful cartoons, exercises and solutions. See also Brodie's "Thinking Forth" below. "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 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. 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 $72 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 ... 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: 90, Zech, Forth for Professionals, Ellis Horwood, 0-13-327040-8 88, Tracy, Mastering Forth 87, Henric-Coll, La Practique du Forth avec Hector I 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 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.html) 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, 19??, 300 pages, ISBN 0-9632775-0-2, price $50. Julian V. Noble 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. An update file has recently been posted to GEnie/FIG. "Thinking FORTH" Leo Brodie, Prentice Hall, 1984, ??? pages, ISBN: 0-13-917576-8 and 0-13-917568-7 (pbk.), price $20. Dick Miller 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 been reprinted at last! MMS has worked to reduce its price from a 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 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 writes: Pountain 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 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-) Other titles are: 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://home.earthlink.net/~forth "Stack Computers: The New Wave" Phillip Koopman, John Wiley & Sons, 1989, ISBN 0-470-21467-8, price $82. Stephen J. Bevan 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 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. "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 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 writes: Continued development has enhanced Until since this publication. For details of the latest public version, see FAQ: system - part 4/6. ------------------------------ Subject: [7] Suppliers Brad Rodriguez writes: Most of these books and conference proceedings are available from the Forth Interest Group, P.O. Box 2154, Oakland, CA 94621 USA, telephone 510-893-6784, fax 510-535-1295. Other suppliers include: FORTH Inc. - email to forthsales@forth.com Miller Microcomputer Services (MMS) - email to dmiller@im.lcs.mit.edu Mountain View Press (MVP) - email to ?? Box 429, Star Route 2 La Honda, CA 94020 and, in the UK, MicroProcessor Engineering Ltd.(MPE) - email to mpe@mpeltd.demon.co.uk Why not call them for a complete list of their Forth publications? ------------------------------ Indexes: [8] Indexes Currently there is no comprehensive 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. http://liinwww.ira.uka.de/bibliography/Compiler/forth.html is part of the Computer Science Bibliography Collection at the University Of Karlsruhe and 13 mirror sites around the world. It contains 668 references to published papers, mostly proceedings of euroForth conferences. See also http://www.paisley.ac.uk/~cis/forth/index.html