Customer Reviews

Thinking Forth

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FORTH isn't for everyone, the use of Reverse Polish Notation, stack operations, and language extensibility can be daunting. But, between Starting Forth as a tutorial and this work providing conceptual insight, there is a path for self study that can bring you along to intermediate level with a reasonable investment of time. Add the FORTH Programmer's Handbook, the ANSI spec and a freeware FORTH package for your flavor of OS (including PalmOS, UNIX, WINDOWS, MSDOS, just about everything has a version) available via the net, and you've got everything you need to explore and learn this powerful, extensible, and compact language.

As a teacher/programmer I found this to be a phenomenal piece of work. One of the hottest items in programming today is refactoring - it's here. Object orientation, modularity, top-down, bottom-up, it's all here. You can't read this book without becomming a better programmer regardless of the language. But you don't want to just read it. Work through the examples, follow the logic until you understand it - really understand it. You don't use Forth? Doesn't matter. The principles of problem analysis and good program construction are language independent. Try this one - you'll like it. Learning to function in the sparce yet luxuriant Forth universe will change the way you program.

This is the second book on Forth that should be read by any person interested in learning Forth. After finishing the examples in Brodies first book, read this one to pick up on how a Forth programmer solves different programming problems. You will find that the methods learned are applicable to all languages but especially useful in the iterative style that is Forth.

Thinking FORTH is as much about philosophy of problem solving and programming style as FORTH. Concepts presented in this '84 publication were light years ahead of their time. OOPs concepts, including data encapsulation, modularity and overloading are explained in simple understandable terms (although with different terminology). Emphisis is on eligance, flexibility and reusability, written in Leo Brodie's unique style. (NO YOU CAN'T HAVE MINE!)

I read Starting Forth back in the 1980s. It did serve me very well to become the Senior Engineer that I am today. If you ever owned a HP pocket calculator as I did, the postfix notation of Forth is no problem for you. If you ever have to write a compiler, as I did for my thesis, you will acknowledge that the Forth compiler is the most simple compiler. Understanding this compiler helps to understand all compilers for imperative programming languages.
The concept of coarse top-down-design, an iterative series of bottom-up implementations with growing functionality and tests on every level of development IS the proper road to write high quality software in short time. Call it Extreme Programming, call it Test Driven Development or just call it "what I did learn from Starting Forth" - after reading and learning this the first time, you will never forget it.

I have always enjoyed Leo Brodie's writing style, humor and the ability to make complex subjects easier to grasp.

If you program in Forth, this book is mind-opening. I second the reviewer who said you should read this book after reading "Starting Forth".

However, to the reviews along the lines of "You don't use Forth? Doesn't matter": I think this book would be very hard going for someone not familiar with Forth. In fact, it is a bit dated, and there are better, more modern books available on non-Forth design, factoring, etc.

Also note that the copyright holder has made this edition of the book (2004) freely available online. Buying from Amazon saves you from getting square eyes (or using up all your print toner).