Re: Portable Software

On 4/5/23 6:30 PM, Anton Ertl wrote:
> Hans-Peter Diettrich <DrDiettrich1@netscape.net> writes:


> You mean: Write your program in Java, Python, Gforth, or the like?
> Sure, they deal with compatibility problems for you, but you may want
> to do things (or have performance) that they do not offer, or only
> offer through a C interface (and in the latter case you run into the
> C-level compatibility again).


Except the library also is portable ;-)


Else you end up with:
      Program runs only on systems with libraries X, Y, Z installed.




>> (G)FORTH IMO is a special case because it's (also) a development system.
>> Building (bootstrapping) a new FORTH system written in FORTH is quite
>> complicated, in contrast to languages with stand alone tools like
>> compiler, linker etc.
>
> Not really. Most self-respecting languages have their compiler(s)
> implemented in the language itself, resulting in having to bootstrap.


The FORTH compiler also is part of the current monolithic framework.
Replacing a WORD has immediate impact on the just running compiler and
everything else. A bug can make the current system crash immediately,
without diagnostics. Else the current WORDs can not be replaced
immediately, only after a full compilation and only by code that depends
on neither the old nor the new framrwork.




> AFAIK the problem Gforth has with Windows is not the bootstrapping;
> packaging and installation are different than for Unix.


Isn't that the same problem with every language?


DoDi

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