Hacker News Reader

Jumping in this post to recommend the exact same idea. Learn a new language outside the type of language you're used to using. I've been using my extra time indoors to learn Clojure and Forth. The things I'm learning are already changing the way I write Swift. I'm also excited about making things on microcontrollers again because Forth gives me a way to escape the horrible tooling forced on us by the chip manufacturers.

View on HN

Forth was the answer, at least for me.

It's hard to explain, but no other language has given me such joy in perhaps decades.

If you look back on those times where you just had a booklet and a simple BASIC interpreter or C64 Assembler crafting your tiny little applications and games without third party libraries, distracting ceremony and best-practices anxiety. Those times where you could be so proud of every little achievement because it was truly yours, and that for some reason felt your most productive years... Then you might want to give it a go.

Just don't fall for the trap of developing your own Forth. Even if that's part of the philosophy of it :)

Now I just wished there was a book akin to "Land of Lisp" but in Forth. Maybe one should...

I used to love Forth. I haven't written Forth code since the 80's. Maybe it's time to try it again.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com