Lisp, the machine language. Was Re: Hallelujah!

From: Dwight Elvey <elvey_at_hal.com>
Date: Mon Apr 5 14:10:28 1999

ard_at_p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) wrote:
> > want something that was microcoded to run Pascal? Are there any other
> > languages that have gotten microcoded into a processor?
>
> There have certainly been Forth machines. A processor with an
> architecture designed to run Forth efficiently (2 stacks, etc) and
> machine instructions that are the primitives of Forth.
>
> -tony

Hi
 There were several Forth machines done over the years,
since the basic concept is so simple. You can even buy
Forth cores done in gate arrays ( '51 cores are also
quite common ). Harris made one that was used quite
often for space applications because it was fast
and could run with smaller amounts of code ( a feature
of Forth ).
 Since the hole thing started with LISP, I find it
interesting that many have called Forth a backwards
LISP ( although, they are truly quite different ).
I always like debugging Forth code over debugging
LISP code because Forth code follows a more natural
order across the page. I found that with LISP, that
I'd have to put a lot of indentions and carriage returns
to follow the flow.
Dwight
Received on Mon Apr 05 1999 - 14:10:28 BST