Re: Command Languages Versus Programming Languages

On 29/03/2024 17:02, Muttley@dastardlyhq.com wrote:

On Fri, 29 Mar 2024 08:44:54 -0700
John Ames <commodorejohn@gmail.com> wrote:

On Fri, 29 Mar 2024 09:55:33 -0000 (UTC)
Muttley@dastardlyhq.com wrote:
>

My rule of thimb is that a scripting language is one whereby the
source code can be run immediately by the interpreter, eg perl,
python, regardless of what happens internally. A full fledged
programming language is one that requires a compile/debug/link step
first with the compiler and runtime (if required) being seperate. eg
Java, C

>
By *that* logic, even Lisp and Forth don't count as "full-fledged
programming languages" o_O Johanne's definition of a "scripting

 As a counter point, good luck writing a device driver in lisp. Forth maybe,
no idea.
 

"Open Firmware" is an attempt to have device drivers for PCI cards (and other hardware) included in flash on the cards, in a processor and platform independent way.  It uses Forth - so the device drivers are provided as Forth source code or byte-compiled Forth, and can then be executed with a simple Forth VM on the target system.  They can also be JIT compiled for the target.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Firmware>
It didn't really take off very well, but certainly people have written device drivers in Forth.