What this country needs...

[Eugen Leitl <ui22204@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sat, 13 May 1995, Jeff Fox wrote:

> Dear Misc-readers,

[ depressing but accurate stuff on economic realities omitted ]

Obviously, the question seems to be: funding. Since
risk venture seems to be now not exactly ubiquitous 
even in the Fabulous Golden Lands of Silicon Valley,
alas, one needs either risk capital or a killer 
application so even the most relunctant capitalist 
will just shove you the $$ sack and say "Go on. 
Bring me the good stuff". So far, 4th has been 
shunned by true professionals. Currently, the 
fraction of computer users who have ever heard 
about Forth is much lower than the beginning of 
the 80's. The language is arcane, "read only", 
unsuitable for large programs, etc. 

You've heard most of these. This is trash but this is
what most people (and decision-makers, alas) believe.

A comfortable niche in embed-controller market is
not enough. Chuck has not enough money to go off
ground to investigate the really exciting vistas 
of new technologies.

What we need is a killer machine. There are two main
easy markets for new stuff: the hackers and the game 
freaks. The bureau applications are dead, obviously.
Scientists don't have the money and will prefer their
Fortran/C anyway.

The hackers are not many and fickle, but once won they
will conquer the machine and provide a plethora of
fantastic code. C64, Mac, Amiga. This alone can bring
a machine into air. Consider games: current VR-fakes 
like DOOM and DESCENT. Ever seen one? I was amazed 
what one could squeeze from 33 MHz 486. With a tiny 
cluster of F21's and a DESCENT engine on a cheap game 
machine with a bunch of ready-to-go games on PCMCIA 
cards (from freaks, of course) one could possibly 
launch a new architecture. Just don't repeat Commodore's 
mistakes and call both the game and the pro machine 
the same name. 

Is the age of garage machines gone?

An RS232 eval board is not enough. Why not providing
a PC keyboard/mouse plug, a minimal SCSI (via software,
mostly. Or take an NCR chip.) adapter and a standard 
RGB/NTSC/PAL output? A scalable parallel machine, 
each purchased board adding more power and memory? 
In a standard PC cabinet, may be? Priced about 
$500-$1000, maybe?

0) Build a decent machine. 
   Put kernel OS into ROM, developer
   tools and hypertext docu on HD.
1) Find good 4th programmes (are there any?)
   Look about in comp.lang.forth, in national
   4th groups, wherever.
2) Offer them the machine real cheap, maybe lend
   them for a time. Make them aware
   of the importance of the task. "Now or never".
3) Encourage them to write and to download
   demos (modem built-in and a free inet account
   allowing them to communicate and download
   with virtually no expense on their own).
   Try to bring them to writing OS parts.
4) Gather the stuff and burn OS into ROM,
   add the rest on HD. Consider offering
   a CD as distribution medium.
5) Provide selling infrastructure, make some 
   promotion. Alternatively take the
   demos and show them to potenial
   investors. Impress them. Ask them for funds.
6) Sell the stuff and invest $$ into
   new software/chips.
7) Reiterate above or sell the design to 
   a successor, concentrating on
   chip design anew.

This is risky, but is there any choice? Is
Forth to remain forever in obscurity? If we
don't do anything it will. MS/Intel will
reign supreme.

Eugene.