I wrote a tiny Forth program today to celebrate the Star Wars Day! Today, i.e. 04 May, is the Star Wars Day. The date (May the fourth) is a pun on the popular Star Wars catchphrase, "May the Force be with you." Forth, the programming language, is named so as a shortened form of the word "Fourth". The name stood for "fourth generation". Quoting from Forth - The Early Years:

> The file holding the interpreter was labeled FORTH, for 4th (next) generation software - but the operating system restricted file names to 5 characters.

So the Forth program presented in this post to print a slightly altered Star Wars catchphrase using ASCII stars (asterisks) is like a double pun! Or is that a triple pun?

Also, if Yoda were a programmer, I think Forth would be his most favourite programming language. Yoda would say, "A Forth programmer I am. Hrmmm," and he would add two and two with, `2 2 +`. It just makes a lot of sense to celebrate May the 4th with some Forth programming.

Here is the program I wrote to celebrate the day:

    : stars
       0  do  [char] * emit  loop  ;

    : lines
       0  do  cr  loop  ;

    : print
       dup 40 > if  40 - lines  else
       dup 20 > if  20 - spaces  else
          stars
       then then  ;

    : start
       0  do  print  loop  ;

                          41 11 37 11 36 5 28 41 5 27 5
                         31 5 27 5 33 5 28 41 5 31 5 27
                        5 31 5 31  5 28 41 5  33 5 25 5
                       33 5 30 5 28 41 5 35 5 23 5 35 5
                      29 5 28 41  5 35 5 23 5 35 5 27 9
                     26 41 5 35  5 23 5 35  5 26 5 21 5
                    25 41 5 35 5 23 5 35 5 25 5 23 5 24
                   41 5 35 5 24 5 33  5 25 5 25 5 23 41
                  5 35 5  25 5 31 5   25 5 27 5 22 41 5
                 35 5 27 5 27 5 26    5 29 5 21 41 5 35
                5 30 11 28 5 31 5     43 2 24 2 25 2 25
               2  26 1 26 1 28 8      23 7 33 41 2 24 2
              25 2 25 2 25 3 24       3 33 2  22 1 25 2
             33 41 8 25 2 25 2        24 2 21 2 22 2 21
            2 29 5 23 7 33 41         2 24 2  25 2 25 2
           23 2 24 3 23 2 31          2 22 1 25 2 33 41
          2 24 2  22 8 22 2           22 2 26 1 25 2 24
         8 23 7 22 11 43 3            27 3 27 3 26 3 28
        3 26 8  35 3 41 3             27 3 27 3 27 3 27
       3  24 3 26 3 33 3              41 3 27 3 27 3 28
      3 26 3 23 3  28 3               32 3 41 3 27 3 27
     3 29 3  25 3 22 3                30 3 31  3  41 13
    27 3  29 11  22 3 30 3 25 9 41 13 27 3 27 13 22 3 30 3 25 9
    41 3 27 3 27 3 26 3 28 3  22 3 30 3 31 3  41 3 27 3 27 3 26
    3 28 3 23 3 28 3 32 3 41 3 27 3 22 13 22 13 24 4 25 3 23 13
    41 3 27 3 22 13 24 11  26 8 25 13 43 11 22 8 22 2 24 2 25 2
    30 2 23 2 25 2 22 2 23 1 23 2 41 2 22 2 24 2 25 2 30 2 24 7
    23 2 22 3 22 2 41 5 22 8 25 2 29 4 24 2 21 2 24 2 21 2 21 2
                                      21  2 41 2  22  2
                                      24 2 25 2 28 2 22
                                      2 24 3 25 4 23  4
                                      41  8 22 2  24  2
                                      22 8 24 2 24 2 24
                                      1  26 3 25  3 473
    start
    bye

Here is the output:

    ***     ***      *    **    **    ********  **    **  ********
    ****   ****     ***    **  **        **     **    **  **
    ** ** ** **    ** **    ****         **     ********  *****
    **  ***  **   *******    **          **     **    **  **
    **   *   **  **     **   **          **     **    **  ********  ***********

    *************     ********      ***********    *************  ***       ***
    *************   ***     ****    *************  *************  ***       ***
    ***            ***        ***   ***        ***      ***       ***       ***
    ***           ***          ***  ***        ***      ***       ***       ***
    *********     ***          ***  *************       ***       *************
    *********     ***          ***  ***********         ***       *************
    ***           ***          ***  ***     ***         ***       ***       ***
    ***            ***        ***   ***      ***        ***       ***       ***
    ***             ***      ***    ***       ***       ***       ***       ***
    ***               ********      ***        ***      ***       ***       ***

    ***********  *******   ********    **     *      **  **  ********  **    **
                 **     *  **           **   ***    **   **     **     **    **
                 *******   *****         ** **  ** **    **     **     ********
                 **     *  **             ***    ***     **     **     **    **
                 *******   ********        *      *      **     **     **    **

    *****           *****        ***********          *****               *****
     *****         *****      *****       *****       *****               *****
      *****       *****     *****           *****     *****               *****
       *****     *****     *****             *****    *****               *****
        *****   *****     *****               *****   *****               *****
         ***** *****      *****               *****   *****               *****
          *********       *****               *****   *****               *****
            *****         *****               *****   *****               *****
            *****          *****             *****     *****             *****
            *****           *****           *****       *****           *****
            *****             *****       *****           *****       *****
            *****                ***********                 ***********

To run this program on your system and obtain the above output, follow these steps:

1. Install GForth. On macOS, enter the following command if you have Homebrew:

       brew install gforth

   On Debian, Ubuntu or another Debian-based Linux system, enter the following command:

       sudo apt-get install gforth

   For other systems or environments, see gforth.org.

2. Save the above program in a file, say, `may4.fs` and run it with this command:

       gforth may4.fs

3. Enjoy!

If you do not know Forth but found this post fun and want to learn a little bit of Forth, see Starting Forth.

The Forth program in this post and the output is also available as a Git repository here: github.com/susam/may4.

By the way, Forth brings back the fun in computing for me that I once experienced when I began learning to code with Logo. It is simple, distraction-free and fun! I will conclude this post with a famous quote from Alan J. Perlis:

> I think that it's extraordinarily important that we in computer science keep fun in computing. When it started out, it was an awful lot of fun. Of course, the paying customers got shafted every now and then, and after a while we began to take their complaints seriously. We began to feel as if we really were responsible for the successful, error-free perfect use of these machines. I don't think we are. I think we're responsible for stretching them, setting them off in new directions, and keeping fun in the house. I hope the field of computer science never loses its sense of fun.