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Finite State Machines in Forth (1995)

galileo.phys.virginia.edu

21–30 of 33 posts

Re: Finite State Machines in Forth (1995)

#21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course! Have friends who work with it on a daily basis. My comment was mostly tongue in cheek, didn't mean that Forth is completely dead. Usually when seeing Forth though, it's bit older stuff than say PHP. My friends for example, are stuck trying to refactor very old code, written in Forth. Didn't mean no harm :)

What do your friends do with it? It’s very high on my priority list for new languages to learn, and finding a job with it someday would be very interesting.

Be sure to read "Thinking Forth". Even if you don't wind up doing a lot with Forth it will still improve your abilities as a programmer.

http://thinking-forth.sourceforge.net/

Re: Finite State Machines in Forth (1995)

#22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hopcroft Ullman's Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages and Computation has good section on state machines and their connection to Regular Expressions

Thank you!!! Its relationship to regex is actually precisely the part that piqued my interest.

With automata theory it’s useful to be pedantic. What people ordinarily mean by “regex” are in different classes of automata from regular expressions as equivalent to finite state machines. For example Perl capture groups, look ahead, and backtracking are beyond what a finite state machine or its equivalent regular expression is capable of. Though for me the simplicity of the FSM is a big part its intellectual appeal.

Re: Finite State Machines in Forth (1995)

#23
post #7

FSM is something I've always been curious about but I can't seem to find any good intro on. Does anyone have a good recommendations? I sort of don't want one tied to a specific language but rather one that helps me understand it from a conceptual level. Thanks!

Hopcroft Ullman's Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages and Computation has good section on state machines and their connection to Regular Expressions

This book is great. It opened my mind how powerful regular expressions could be.

Re: Finite State Machines in Forth (1995)

#24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do your friends do with it? It’s very high on my priority list for new languages to learn, and finding a job with it someday would be very interesting.

Be sure to read "Thinking Forth". Even if you don't wind up doing a lot with Forth it will still improve your abilities as a programmer. http://thinking-forth.sourceforge.net/

It's in my pile o' papers. I've broken it out a couple of times but haven't gotten far yet.

Re: Finite State Machines in Forth (1995)

#25

With the veritable flurry of state machine posts today[0,1] I thought I'd (re)submit[2] one of my favorite posts on finite state machines in Forth. The specific example is of number input routine allows signed decimal numbers without power-of-10 exponents (fixed-point, in FORTRAN parlance) and comes from the author's book Scientific Forth, where a fuller example is used ... to determine whether a piece of text is a p…

A project to create a Creative Commons version of Dr. Noble’s book was started, but doesn’t seem very active lately [0]. The lead even received permission from Dr. Noble’s widow [1]. [0] https://github.com/Josefg/Scientific_FORTH [1] https://github.com/Josefg/Scientific_FORTH/blob/master/Conse...

I've helped out with a few chapters! I'm actually very excited about it due to the relative scarcity of physical copies of the book.

While it isn't too active, the most recent activity was in the last week or so, I think all that remains are some figures and tables for a couple chapters, the index and proof-reading[0]. It's very nearly there due to a lot of work on Josef's part.

[0]: https://github.com/Josefg/Scientific_FORTH/wiki

Re: Finite State Machines in Forth (1995)

#26
post #7

FSM is something I've always been curious about but I can't seem to find any good intro on. Does anyone have a good recommendations? I sort of don't want one tied to a specific language but rather one that helps me understand it from a conceptual level. Thanks!

Hopcroft Ullman's Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages and Computation has good section on state machines and their connection to Regular Expressions

So I searched and I found that my library has a book with this exact title, but by a guy named Shyamalendu Kandar. I've read the introduction and the preface, and nothing suggests it has any direct influence or relation to the book you are describing. Maybe its just a coincidence, though it does seem slightly fishy.

Re: Finite State Machines in Forth (1995)

#27
post #7

FSM is something I've always been curious about but I can't seem to find any good intro on. Does anyone have a good recommendations? I sort of don't want one tied to a specific language but rather one that helps me understand it from a conceptual level. Thanks!

I hope this book puts you on the right path, Brothers and Sisters.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gospel_of_the_Flying_Spagh...

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