Re: Color Forth

[Andrew Sieber <asieber@xxxxxxx>]

wmor1@student.monash.edu.au wrote:
> About colour Forth, nice idea but as Andrew Houghton pionts out, a bit
> useless for colour blind people.   Another topic is that while good
> for clarifying syntax, how are we supposed to print it on a b&w
> printer?

Neither of those problems exist if you use Normal Forth as the
underlying code.  My C++ code shows up colorfully in Borland's editor,
but it is still standard C++.  I can also print the code on my b&w dot
matrix printer, and it comes out as standard C++.  Colorblind or not,
the code is readable.  The color on the screen is of course useless to a
colorblind person, but it is not an obstacle.
Since I was suggesting combining Borland's and Chuck's ideas and
visually displaying color words _instead_ of b&w colons, semicolons,
etc., but still having Normal Forth underneath, the b&w printers and
colorblind people can simply ignore the color editor and use the
underlying (b&w) Normal Forth instead.  Yes, if colorblind people use
the color editor, necessary information about the code will be invisible
to them; however, nobody's under any obligation to use the color
editor.  It's all the same to the computer.

Normal Forth is the reality.  Color is only in the eye of the beholder.
Color Forth is the map, and Normal Forth is the territory.
Color Forth is to Normal Forth as assembly language is to machine
language.

Sorry, I get carried away with analogies.  Just my 2 cents worth.

BTW, does anybody know the approximate percentage of people who are
colorblind enough that color Forth would be an obstacle?  I personally
am slightly colorblind between blue and green (I think it's blue and
green, I don't remember for sure), but it in no way affects my everyday
color perception.  I can distinguish colors on a monitor easily.  The
only reason I know I'm colorblind is that the eye doctor has these
annoying pictures of dots that are carefully designed to be as confusing
as possible to people who are even slightly colorblind, and they prove
that I'm slightly colorblind.  Other than those pictures, I can see the
whole spectrum of color without any problem.  I say this not to ramble
on about irrelevant topics, but instead to point out that while many
people (such as myself) may be _technically_ classified as colorblind,
only a small fraction of such people as actually unable to perceive
color at all.

--Andrew
asieber@usa.net