Chuck Moore, the creator of Forth, is the special guest in conference
 on the GEnie Forth RoundTable for 24 August 1989. The topic of Chuck's
 conference is 'The future of Forth...' . 
 The following is a brief prelude to the conference designed to set the
 tone and stimulate discussion. Chuck uploaded it prior to his conference.
 Gary Smith, host SysOp
      
 Prelude:
 The 'Future of ...' is a catchall for everything having to do with
 Forth.  Its current place in the world is impossible to determine -
 and largely irrelevant.  Forth is a valuable tool - and will remain
 so - regardless of the number using it.
 
 Recently I was obliged to use conventional CAD software.  I am
 dismayed that it hasn't evolved from the 60's.  Forth is the only
 hope for improved software, ignoring the ever-hopeful AI and
 neural nets.
 
 Computers are getting ever more complicated, in violation of the
 first principle of human activity: KEEP IT SIMPLE .  In respect for
 this unique forum - 25 words or less - I offer the following
 statements to challange/guide question/comment.
 
 1- I like classic Forth.
 2- This includes BLOCKs - simpler, faster, better than files.
 3- VOCABULARY has been mis-used by FIG-Forth.  It is a poor
    substitute for fast compile.
 4- Forth must evolve.  Standards are very dangerous.
 5- ANSI committee deserves thanks for 'above and beyond call of duty'.
    Theirs is the impossible dream.
 6- Marvelous opportunity for non-ANSI Forths.
 7- Forth architecture is superb for micro (macro) computers.
    Many variants should be explored.
 8- Three keys are necessary and sufficient.  QWERTY is a joke.
 9- Marvelous opportunity for non-IBM PCs.
 10- Work smart, not hard - Forthought.
 11- A program that can do everything (ie, SPICE) can do nothing
     well, fast, easily.
 12- PUSH and POP are better names for >R and R>.
 13- Multiply is a much over-used arithmetic operation.
     Ie, FFT can be replaced by Walsh-Hadamard.
 14- Floating-point is a bad joke.
 15- Withold source code only when you're ashamed of it.
    
 Over to you, Gary
    Chuck