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And Forth was invented by Charles Moore while at NRAO!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_H._Moore?wprov=sfti1#E...

"In 1968, while employed at the United States National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), Moore invented the initial version of the Forth language to help control radio telescopes."




W. Richard Stevens wrote a Forth manual for Kitt Peak in the 70s. Now I’m curious how many observatories used the language.


This has some great background on Forth's history and use at observatories.

"The evolution of Forth | History of programming languages---II" - https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/234286.1057832


I know of one: the U.S. Naval Observatory near Flagstaff, Arizona. I lived in Flagstaff in 1979. I knew the astronomer and visited him at the observatory at night. He showed me a terminal running Forth that could control the telescope.

I’m sure there were many other sites.




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