Forth Programmer's Handbook (3rd Edition)

The new Third Editon of Forth Programmer's Handbook (ISBN 1419675494) is now available on Amazon.com. Forth Programmer's Handbook provides a reference source for the most common features of the integrated software development systems based on the Forth programming language. It assumes at least an elementary knowledge of the Forth language, consistent with having studied Starting Forth and attended a Forth programming course, or the equivalent. If you are new to Forth, we encourage you to begin by reading Starting Forth carefully and working the problems at the end of each chapter. This book is primarily intended to describe how a programmer can use Forth to solve problems. This is a rather different goal from explaining how Forth works, but it is a practical necessity for the new user of a Forth system. This manual is also organized to serve experienced programmers who need to check some point quickly. Forth Programmer's Handbook is a thorough introduction to the Forth programming language. Written for readers with programming backgrounds but not necessarily with prior exposure to Forth, it offers comprehensive coverage of all major aspects of the language, from basic principles to advanced concepts such as multitasking and cross-compiling for embedded systems. It covers nearly 400 commands, including ANS Forth words and many common extensions. The book describes how programmers use Forth to solve problems, serves as a reference for experienced programmers and presents the language's history and rationale. Forth was developed at the National Radio Astronomy Laboratory in the early 1970s; the authors were among its original developers and founders of FORTH, Inc., a premier supplier of Forth products and services. Elizabeth D. Rather chaired the Technical Committee that produced the ANSI Standard for Forth in 1994.