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  • Forth Book: Programming for the Utter Beginner

    From Buzz McCool@21:1/5 to All on Thu Apr 25 08:09:12 2024
    I ran across this transcript in the ACM archives https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/142835.142850
    which mentions a Forth book called "Programming for the Utter Beginner"
    by Michael Ham of Laboratory Microsystems Inc.

    I searched for a paper or electronic version in the usual places but was
    unable to determine if it actually exists. Is anyone aware of where I
    could view or obtain a copy?

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  • From mhx@21:1/5 to Buzz McCool on Thu Apr 25 18:23:40 2024
    Buzz McCool wrote:

    I ran across this transcript in the ACM archives https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/142835.142850
    which mentions a Forth book called "Programming for the Utter Beginner"
    by Michael Ham of Laboratory Microsystems Inc.

    I searched for a paper or electronic version in the usual places but was unable to determine if it actually exists. Is anyone aware of where I
    could view or obtain a copy?

    Are your sure it's not his DDJ column collection? (DDJ online is unusable, unfortunately). The title does not look like something that would get past
    a copy editor :--)

    -marcel

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  • From mhx@21:1/5 to mhx on Thu Apr 25 20:26:26 2024
    mhx wrote:

    Are your sure it's not his DDJ column collection? (DDJ online is unusable, unfortunately). The title does not look like something that would get past
    a copy editor :--)

    Too fast. All DDJ issues are available here in their full glory: https://archive.org/details/1987-08-dr-dobbs-journal/page/n5/mode/2up .

    -marcel

    PS: I also see dozens of Forth books, manuals, and implementation guides.
    No trace of any *book* by Michael Ham, though.

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  • From Kerr-Mudd, John@21:1/5 to mhx on Fri Apr 26 20:07:43 2024
    On Thu, 25 Apr 2024 20:26:26 +0000
    mhx@iae.nl (mhx) wrote:

    mhx wrote:

    Are your sure it's not his DDJ column collection? (DDJ online is unusable, unfortunately). The title does not look like something that would get past a copy editor :--)

    Too fast. All DDJ issues are available here in their full glory: https://archive.org/details/1987-08-dr-dobbs-journal/page/n5/mode/2up .

    -marcel

    PS: I also see dozens of Forth books, manuals, and implementation guides.
    No trace of any *book* by Michael Ham, though.

    They (pun intended)'d be in trouble these days:


    The program must meet users’ rea-
    sonable expectations. For example,
    in one program it is necessary to de-
    termine the user’s sex. For consisten-
    cy with earlier menus, the user is
    asked to respond to the menu “1—
    Female, 2—Male,” but the program
    accepts F, f, M, and m in addition to 1
    and 2. S


    Yes, Sex <>Gender. But what is this program doing? Giving prostate/breast cancer advise?
    --
    Bah, and indeed Humbug.

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  • From Kerr-Mudd, John@21:1/5 to dxf on Fri Apr 26 20:56:23 2024
    On Fri, 26 Apr 2024 09:08:04 +1000
    dxf <dxforth@gmail.com> wrote:

    On 26/04/2024 1:09 am, Buzz McCool wrote:
    I ran across this transcript in the ACM archives https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/142835.142850
    which mentions a Forth book called "Programming for the Utter Beginner" by Michael Ham of Laboratory Microsystems Inc.

    I searched for a paper or electronic version in the usual places but was unable to determine if it actually exists. Is anyone aware of where I could view or obtain a copy?

    Never came across the book but the companion forth compiler bundled with it is here:

    ftp://ftp.taygeta.com/pub/Forth/Compilers/native/dos/FirstForth.zip

    Perhaps someone knows the corresponding http link (assuming that still exists).
    The Taygeta forth archive search facility at forth.org seems to be broken.


    It says in the 'read.me'

    When your payment is received, you will be shipped a copy of
    *Programming for the Utter Beginner*. Your registration will be
    recorded so that you will receive information on any upgrades to
    FIRST/FORTH and on other LMI products. In addition, you will
    receive a credit of $20 toward the purchase of UR/FORTH or WinForth.


    So the 'bundling' goes the other way!
    --
    Bah, and indeed Humbug.

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  • From Buzz McCool@21:1/5 to All on Fri Apr 26 15:07:46 2024
    On 26/04/2024 1:09 am, Buzz McCool wrote:
    I ran across this transcript in the ACM archives
    https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/142835.142850
    which mentions a Forth book called "Programming for the Utter Beginner" by Michael Ham of Laboratory Microsystems Inc.

    I searched for a paper or electronic version in the usual places but was unable to determine if it actually exists. Is anyone aware of where I could view or obtain a copy?

    On Fri, 26 Apr 2024 09:08:04 +1000 dxf <dxforth@gmail.com> wrote: ...

    On 4/26/2024 12:56 PM, Kerr-Mudd, John wrote: ...


    Thanks for the detective work.

    No sign of that book, but I did stumble across this November 1983
    Laboratory Microsystems price list which may of historical interest to
    some of you: https://tinyurl.com/mwvtvyht

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  • From mhx@21:1/5 to dxf on Sat Apr 27 06:21:08 2024
    dxf wrote:
    [..]
    Nor a particularly attractive bundle.
    [..]

    The price alone says nothing. What was the quality of the compiler compared
    to equivalent systems?

    If (from that page) I add up the prices of all the packages that nowadays
    seem essential, I come to $1,500. In 1986 this was equivalent in purchasing power to about $4,274.62 today. In today's reality, that is about 40 to 100 times as much as people are prepared to pay for any piece of software based
    on an add in their favorite magazine (or that I myself would have been *able* to pay as a student in that era).

    What does this say? I don't know.

    $50 bought you a book for a crippled (IIRC) compiler. At this time F-PC was free and doing the rounds of bulletin boards.

    Are sure about that date? I thought F-PC came much later, in 1994.
    Downloading 1 MBytes through a 300 Baud connection takes ~30,000 seconds
    or 9 hours and 25 minutes.

    -marcel

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  • From Paul Rubin@21:1/5 to mhx on Sat Apr 27 02:55:14 2024
    mhx@iae.nl (mhx) writes:
    Are sure about that date? I thought F-PC came much later, in 1994. Downloading 1 MBytes through a 300 Baud connection takes ~30,000
    seconds or 9 hours and 25 minutes.

    By 1994, modems were a lot faster (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USRobotics):

    In 1986, USR introduced their Courier HST, short for "high speed
    transfer". Using trellis encoding, HST provided 9,600 bit/s speeds,
    leapfrogging the standards efforts and offering four times the
    performance for about twice the price of a 2400 bit/s model. In 1989
    HST was expanded to 14.4 kbit/s, 16.8 kbit/s in 1992,[6] and finally
    to 21 kbit/s and 24 kbit/s.

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