Through the group consenses evaluation of Forth and its needs, a basis for a 21st Century Forth can be established. This is what was gleaned from the attendees of the morning session for the Silicon Valley FIG on January 24, 1998.

Others can add to or improve this list if they like by e-mailing john.carpenter@stanford.edu (John D. Carpenter).

This list provides a basis for further SVFIG meeting morning sessions and will ultimately provide input for the next revision of the Forth ANSI standard as the "what" here evolves into the "how" subsequently.

What's good about Forth

small

easy to understand

extendable

adaptable to programmer

minimal syntax

interactive

open compiler/interpreter

simple architecture

source code available

helpful in learning about hardware and software

What's bad about Forth

NIH (not invented here)

cryptic reverse polish notation

difficult to learn

documentation sometimes lacking or unavailable

unconventional syntax

no linkage with other languages

getting more complex

lack of data typing

source (proprietary protection problem)

What 21st Century Forth should be

work in embedded applications

work with networks and Internet

work with large systems (operating systems, graphic user interface)

be able to be taught to programmers and engineers

What Forth needs

reuseable binaries (other languages & headers)

more/better/useable libraries

safety (year 2000)

better documentation

more examples

workable standards

better gui/window editor w/more information

package confidence

more debugger integration

works with newer CPUs

publications

big daddy $$$

educational opportunities

more types of multitasking/multiprocessing

21st Century Forth desires and vision

real/virtual machines/core

scriptmaking (language to taste)

real compile toggle (memory, speed, optimization)

integratable applications

"browser" environment *

environments (such as voice) interpretation (fuzzy)

pda's bases, smart cards, etc

servants (robots, etc) applications

* Note that browser is in quotes; future human interface to a general purpose computer and many dedicated purpose computers may well be derived from what is now a browser interface. There is no name for such an interface yet so "browser" will do for now.