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Comment by SingAlong | Hacker News Reader

direct clickable: http://thewikireader.com/

I wasn't suprised when I read the footer of the site, which credited OpenMoko :)

They are the same guys who make the OpenMoko phones, Neo Runner and the like. So I just dug up a bit more to find out that this device, like the OpenMoko phones runs on linux. atleast thats what I concluded when I saw the source code here http://github.com/wikireader/wikireader

The article above says it's developed in Forth and also links to a part of the source code. Anybody has any experience with Forth?

The only caveat is this: http://thewikireader.com/store.html

The updates for the data in this device (all data is stored in the device), will cost you $29 per 2 updates per year. Heck, why not just have an updating software and let it update whenever it detects a wifi connection? Paid updates for an open device accessing open content sounds locked to me.

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I have some experience with Forth; I have been programming a forth CPU in 2002 and got paid for it.(it's me who left a comment in the article)

The article says "the main WikiReader app is written in C" and uses forth "for testing and apps"; a fine approach if you depend on core libraries which are in C. It'll be interesting to see which functionality is done in Forth.

The article mentions that Forth is used to simplify debugging. This is traditional approach and this is what Forth proponents say. The truth is, it was more true back in the day when JTAG wasn't available. Now that JTAG is omnipresent and popular IDEs can use it, the use of fringe language such as Forth (or any software solution where hardware-assisted one is readily available!) is so much less justified.

In the quoted letter, Christopher Hall, the developer, does a nice job of explaining the use of Forth in a project. But I think many people who got the chance to familiarize with Forth, feel like this is a mere justification. Like "c'mon you can tell them what you want, but between you and me, we know that this is a good shit and you just want to try it once again" Or, like, picture Paul Graham picking a language for his next project: "Should I use Lisp or Blub? Hmm, this question needs careful consideration."

NB: Wikipedia articles for Forth and JTAG are good.

The 29 dollars is for two memory cards in the mail. You can update it for free via a 4GB download and a microSD card reader.

No, the WikiReader doesn't run on Linux. It's a tiny embedded micro that doesn't really have any operating system -- just a little flash file system and a couple of small drivers for the LCD screeen, touch screen, etc.

Also, as my article notes, it's not "developed in Forth" (the main wiki app is in C), but it has a Forth compiler on it for hardware testing and small apps.

Note that the point of my article wasn't to link to the WikiReader (that would be blog spam), but to show how and why the WikiReader uses Forth for testing and apps.

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