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From: dxf <dxforth@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth
Subject: Re: "The Best Programming Language for the End of the World"
Date: Fri, 4 Apr 2025 15:57:56 +1100
Organization: i2pn2 (i2pn.org)
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On 4/04/2025 1:44 am, Hans Bezemer wrote:
> ... 
> "I've looked at a lot of Forth code, and it's almost uniformly doc-free." That's an attitude problem - not a language problem.
> 
> "The average Forth program becomes much more quickly a mess of cryptic definitions only the original programmer understands." Again, a lack of documentation is not a problem of the language.

I'm sure the author of that article is accomplished but I know bias when I see it.
Columnist John Dvorak famously said:

"I have yet to see a decent piece of software written in Forth.  Let's face it,
 Forth stinks."

and writers ever since have piggy-backed off it.

> But after ten, twenty years I still find most of my programs are still perfectly maintainable - contrary to what most notorious Forth haters claim.

Same here and not just that, there are apps whose coding I'm quite proud of having
gone through several updates.  The amount of doc I include is based on who is likely
to use/maintain it - usually me.  That said, some stuff has ended up in commercial
apps and nobody has come back to me and asked for more docs.  I guess that means I
know my audience.

Hans, if nothing else you know how to stir up forthers :-)