Programming A Problem Oriented Language
by Charles H Moore, Juergen Pintaske · first published 2018
7mentions
5recommended by
6HN commenters
2016–2026first – last mentioned
83% recommend17% neutral
Why HN recommends it
A short, free manual by Forth's inventor that presents his design philosophy of simplicity and exploratory programming, and offers a way into understanding Forth and its creator's thinking.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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…language that allows one to write an interactive assembler for a system with 8k of RAM, I've yet to hear of it. The minimum investment in Forth, which I recommend to all thoughtful developers, is reading Programming a Problem Oriented Language by Chuck Moore, Forth's inventor.
on “Plan9 from?” ↗…flavor. Nothing wrong with that. The closeness to the metal is basic to the Forth experience, doing interesting things in Factor and in Forth uses completely different mechanisms. I suggest reading Programming a Problem-Oriented Language[0] by Chuck Moore, because it's among the best memoirs by an influential computer programmer, but also to get a feel for what Forth is all about, what makes it distinctive. [0]: http://www.forth.org/POL.pdf
on “Forth: A New Way to Program a Mini Computer (1974)” ↗…is downright hostile to exploratory programming. If you really want to understand the genius of Forth and its creator, I suggest reading everything that Chuck Moore put down in writing starting with "Programming a problem-oriented language". A lot of us today, being bogged down in the sort of tedium-inducing programming that pays the bills, tend to forget that programming languages are (or should be!) primarily about expressing ideas.…
on “Implementing a Forth” ↗Oh, also "Programming A Problem Oriented Language: Forth - how the internals work" by Charles Moore, the inventor of Forth. It conveys his design philosophy: simplicity. Time and again he makes the point "You don't need it." Where a simple solution…
on “R3forth: A Concatenative Language Derived from ColorForth” ↗Programming a Problem Oriented Language is freely available here: http://www.forth.org/POL.pdf I'd also recommend looking at Thinking Forth if you want to get some more insight into Forth's philosophy, and really program structuring in general.…
on “Plan9 from?” ↗Do you mean Programming a Problem-Oriented Language? http://www.forth.org/POL.pdf This is really great, I didn't know about this.
on “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System (2008) [pdf]” ↗Related: Programming a Problem-Oriented-Language (1970) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18756990 - Dec 2018 (4 comments) Programming a Problem-Oriented Language (1970) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8387120 - Sept 2014 (13 comments)…
on “Programming a Problem-Oriented Language (1970) [pdf]” ↗