Laws of Computing: a View from Forth

Abstract

A fully developed branch of science generally assumes a set well organized principles or laws, from which all the observable consequences can be derived by mathematics and logic. This paper is trying to explore the Law of Computing from the Forth aspects. A Forth program is constructed in independently testable modules, which are combined into bigger modules in which correctness can then be proven. In other languages, this recursive process is too expensive and too time consuming to be practical. The very tight code-test-edit loop in Forth gives Forth programmer the luxury to traverse his system up and down many times to prove its correctness.