I’m potentially interested in exploring a stack-based language like Forth (or Factor). What I’d like to see is how an application might be built from the ground up, step by step. The tutorials I’ve found are rudimentary and are not helping me to understand the bigger picture. It’s confusing to think of how one might manage the stack when dealing with lots of parts.
I’ve always thought (maybe wrongly) that a good way to learn a language would be to use it to write a Roguelike game. I’m having trouble trying figure out how one would juggle a lot of things on a stack: a maze, dozens of creatures, treasures, character stats, etc.
In some sense, all languages are equivalent; you write a program by breaking a problem down into smaller pieces, then you code up those pieces and make them all work together. Forth has unusual syntax features, but it’s still a programming language.
In fact, Forth places a great deal of power at your fingertips, much as Lisp does. In Lisp, using “macros”, you can write your own control structures that are just as good as anything built-in; in Forth, you can do the same.
If you are interested in finding out more about Forth, I suggest you get the classic books Starting Forth and Thinking Forth by Leo Brodie.
Oh! Google just told me that both books are available free online now:
http://www.forth.com/starting-forth/
http://thinking-forth.sourceforge.net/