Chuck Moore colorForth Consulting

Updated 2002 September
colorForth Home Page

# Consulting

I've long been dissatisfied with computer languages and applications. It seems that many people are. Operating systems are incredibly complex and unreliable. Applications are huge and buggy. A large industry now exploits this, so the situation won't improve.

It need not be. I can't change the industry, but I can provide a few clients with elegant software. Trained as a physicist, I've written software for 40 years. See resume or biography. I'm not a manager. I don't have an organization. But I'm expert at analysing and solving problems.

# Client

If you want C, Windows, Unix there are other sources. If you want a quick, simple solution, perhaps to an impossible problem, read on.

I work in colorForth. It's the most delightful language I've ever seen. I expect its applications to need only 1% the code of C programs.

While it's incompatible with other software and file formats, it's compatible with anything across a bus, network or removable medium. That is where standards apply: to communication, not implementation. Actually, incompatibility enhances security.

I expect clients to want to make changes to their code. Applications are provided in source with documentation and training. They're recompiled (instantly) every time they're used. Editing the source is easy, testing is interactive and changes are temporary until saved. This provides the opportunity to tune an application until it's exactly right.

# Application

There are applications that make sense to run under Windows. But not all. One running on a dedicated computer is bound only by its output and performance.

colorForth currently runs on PC platforms. That world has changed in the last ten years. Software has not. A PC with keyboard, display, megabytes of RAM and gigabytes of disk costs less than $1,000. There is no need to manage multiple threads or page virtual memory. Classic operating-system functions are obsolete. They've become the problem, not the solution.

colorForth boots from floppy, copies 1.4 Megabytes into RAM, turns off the drive, recompiles itself and runs indefinitely. Or boots from hard disk, if Windows hasn't prempted the boot sector. With megabytes of RAM there is no longer a need to continually access disk.

Most of my career has been interfacing computers to unfamiliar hardware, from displays and disks to satellites and robots. Forth is

- Excellent for interactively debugging hardware.
- Excellent for simulations.
- Excellent for cross-compiling code for embedded microprocessors.
- Excellent for writing operating scripts.

# Chips

I also design chips. A custom chip makes sense at quantity 100,000. As many Mips as you want. Turn-around on prototypes is 4 months. First, commission a simulation.

# Cost

My consulting fee is $100/hr (plus expenses). I'll negotiate a fixed price.

Some examples:

- Installing colorForth on your PC may take some hours: Display and disk drivers aren't really portable.
- Demonstrating a prototype of your application will take some hours: Crude displays and keyboard interface.
- Poking your hardware will take some hours: Read status, turn on lights, evaluate documentation.
- A complete application will take some days/weeks: Rugged interactions, documentation, training.

For a (free) estimate: chipchuck@colorforth.com
Remember, while software is expensive, chips are really expensive. The cost of a dedicated computer is nothing. The value of an optimized application is immense.