Originally published in Commodore Hacking electronic magazine #15, April 1998
In the early 70’s, Charles Moore designed one of the most powerful computing languages known. This language, Forth, was very different from the traditional procedural languages.
Forth is a language which allows the programmer to change most any facet of the language they wish ( including syntax extensions ).
Forth’s rapid acceptance on 8-bit microcomputers stemmed from the fact that it took a relatively small amount of memory to properly implement the language.
This post was formerly hosted at a couple of my other blogs. I’ve moved it here. It was originally posted in 2000.
If you’ve ever used a Forth compiler, chances are you’ve heard the name Tom Zimmer. Tom’s been a staple in the Forth community for a few decades. Tom developed a number of Forth systems for popular 8-bit microcomputers that dominated the home-computer market in the 80’s.
Tom is the creator of the freeware Win32Forth system.
Originally published in the Commodore Hacking (C=Hacking) electronic magazine #14, November 1996. This post has been reprinted in Commodore Free magazine and other e-magazines. Jim Butterfield passed away on June 29th, 2007 after a long battle with cancer. I grieve with the family and the legions of techies who looked upon Jim as a mentor via his articles and ongoing contact with the Commodore community. Rest in peace, Mr. Butterfield.
Originally posted 5-21-2004. In the early days of 8-bit computing, a programmer’s most often-used tool was the assembler. Due to memory constraints, many of the early 8-bit machines could not run a full assembler. At best, one could hope for some sort of machine-language monitor that would include a mini-assembler and a disassembler.
That was … until Don French came along and implemented a symbolic assembler on the unexpanded VIC-20.
This post was originally published in 1999.
Being a bit of a video-game and classic computer enthusiast, I recently purchased the electronic book Halcyon Days - Interviews with Classic Computer and Video Game Programmers. Note: In 2002, this book was made available to read freely here: https://www.dadgum.com/halcyon
The author of the book, James Hague, is himself a game developer. Since I noticed that his complete bio was missing from the text, I asked if he’d permit me to interview him.