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by macintux 377 days ago
W. Richard Stevens wrote a Forth manual for Kitt Peak in the 70s. Now I’m curious how many observatories used the language.
2 comments

This has some great background on Forth's history and use at observatories.

"The evolution of Forth | History of programming languages---II" - https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/234286.1057832

I know of one: the U.S. Naval Observatory near Flagstaff, Arizona. I lived in Flagstaff in 1979. I knew the astronomer and visited him at the observatory at night. He showed me a terminal running Forth that could control the telescope.

I’m sure there were many other sites.