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%% Alternative back page, written by Bernd Paysan
%% you'll find the original back page at version 1.3 in the CVS repository

\noindent
\textbf{Thinking \Forth{}} is a book about the philosophy of problem
solving and programming style, applied to the unique programming
language `\Forth{}.' Published first in 1984, it could be among the
timeless classics of computer books, such as \person{Fred Brooks}'
\emph{The Mythical Man-Month} and \person{Donald Knuth}'s \emph{The
Art of Computer Programming}.

Many software engineering principles discussed here have been
rediscovered in eXtreme Programming, including (re)factoring,
modularity, bottom-up and incremental design.  Here you'll find all of
those and more---such as the value of analysis and design---described
in \person{Leo Brodie}'s down-to-earth, humorous style, with
illustrations, code examples, practical real life applications,
illustrative cartoons, and interviews with \Forth{}'s inventor,
\person{Charles H. Moore} as well as other Forth thinkers.

If you program in \Forth{}, this is a must-read book.  If you don't,
the fundamental concepts are universal: \textbf{Thinking \Forth{}} is
meant for anyone interested in writing software to solve problems.
The concepts go beyond \Forth{}, but the \emph{simple beauty} of
\Forth{} throws those concepts into stark relief.

So flip open the book, and read all about the philosophy of Forth,
analysis, decomposition, problem solving, style and conventions,
factoring, handling data, and minimizing control structures.  But be
prepared: you may not be able to put it down.

\medskip
This book has been scanned, OCR'd, typeset in \LaTeX{}, and brought
back to print (and your monitor) by a collaborative effort under a Creative
Commons license.

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\textbf{\person{Leo Brodie}} has been thinking professionally about 
software development since 1980, when he joined \Forth, Inc.\@ as a
technical writer. He has also served as a consultant, author,
developer and program manager for companies including IBM, NCR,
Digalog Corp., Microsoft, and Real Networks.  He also authored
\emph{Starting \Forth} (Prentice-Hall, 1981).
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