Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] EMC? Jon ?

On Sunday 24 July 2005 04:06 am, Alex Holden wrote:

<...>

> > So I looked into it, and while there's a fair amount of programming
> > capability in there, it was real difficult for me to see how this could
> > be used in any sort of a control application. Maybe that was particular
> > extensions that were written for it or something? In any case, I'd like
> > to implement some stuff using it, but need to find more info, if any of
> > you guys know of any.
>
> Forth's popularity is waning now (the UK Forth Interest Group recently
> announced they will no longer be publishing a journal), but there are still
> plenty of die-hards around who claim that Forth lets them be several times
> as productive as C programmers.

I guess that all depends on how you want to define productive. :-)

For lower-level stuff, yeah I can see where it would be...

<...>

> There are also a couple of companies which sell expensive professional Forth
> development systems for embedded systems which include a flashy GUI and
> optimising compilers that produce code about as fast as compiled C code.
> They're intended to compete directly with the high-end C development
> systems.
> http://www.forth.com/
> http://www.mpeltd.demon.co.uk/

I don't know whether it would fit in that category or not, but I have here a
6809-based board that comes up in Forth. Expensive? Well, the guy I got it
from paid something over $300 for it, as I recall. I got it a while back,
along with all sorts of manuals, which I read over, in addition to the
stuff I was finding out there on the 'net. And I *still* don't see anything
that's designed to interface, to talk to anything besides the terminal you
have hooked up to it. Maybe I'm missing something here? You'd think it
would be more apparent, what with all the way it gets touted as a good tool
for low-level control of hardware...

> > I think an outboard box with 8-bit parts running Forth might make
> > one heck of a nifty addition to a CAM setup... :-D
>
> There's lots of ready-built Forth hardware around, including more
> powerful stuff like tiny LPC2106 (60Mhz 32 bit ARM with 64K of RAM
> and 128K of Flash) based boards:
> http://www.mpeltd.demon.co.uk/tiniarm.htm

Sounds like overkill for what I need here, for sure. Besides, I'd rather
use what I have on hand if at all possible rather than buy stuff. In
addition to the above-mentioned board I also have a LOT of CP/M boxes still
and a LOT of 65xx-series chips I'd like to try and do something with...