Re: a Forth disk and Captain Crunch

[Charlie Springer <RAM@regnirps.com>]

On Tue, 6 Jun 2006 19:35:08 -0700, Jorge ChB wrote
(in article <1hgjlxs.wj1ut61mn7zfkN%bieling@terra.es>):

> The following manuals are in print: 
> 
> -Caltech FORTH Manual, an advanced manual with internal details of
> Forth. Has Some implementation peculiarities. Approx. $6.50 from the
> Caltech Book Store, Pasadena, CA.
> -Kitt Peak Forth Primer, 520.00 postpaid from the Forth Interest Group,
> P. O. Box 1105, San Carlos, CA 94070.
> -microFORTH Primer, $15.00 Forth, Inc. 815 Manhattan Ave. Manhattan
> Beach, CA 90266
> -Forth Dimensions, newsletter of the Forth Interest Group, $5.00 for 6
> issues including membership. F-I-G. P.O. Box 1105, San Carlos, CA.
> 94070"

Yes, anyone could use FIG and you should be able to find the FIG notice as 
ASCII in the Forth used by Draper.

If you had called or written to FIG back then you would have reached the 
kitchen or garage phone of Mountain View Press (Roy Martens' house) which was 
usually answered by an employee or his wife Sari while Roy worked the MVP 
side from his home office or the hot tub. Two more houses (mine and another) 
were connected with a phone system that allowed transferring calls so we 
could all work at home surrounded by our development equipment and docs and 
calls were transfered as if we were all in an office building. I know, it 
sounds simple now, but before email and cell phones it was pretty cool. 
Anyone who picked up a product in person could tell you what a hub of Forth 
activity and publications the place became. Or anyone who saw the double size 
booth at West Coast Computer Fairs all piled high with books and demos and 
software packages. 

One year we were right beside Uhuru and Chekov who were signing autographs 
and promoting a product. I don't remember what it was, but it was fun to 
shoot the bull and have a few beers with them after closing each night. Used 
to see Jerry Pournell the same way -- open a bottle of booze and he would 
find you. Despite the good liquor, we couldn't convert him to Forth or Apple 
products. Some "expert" friend of his was dead set against both so he wrote 
in Byte for years about how to make your CP/M or MSDOS system work with 
hundreds of little patches from various companies.

-- Charlie Springer