Talk:3277: Forth

explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
Latest comment: 31 July by 2600:1010:B341:BACE:6D0B:9F4A:E8DF:B0B0
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The English language generally uses "Subject-Verb-Object" (SVO) word order, as in "Sam ate apples". Forth uses "Subject-Object-Verb" (SOV) order, as in "Sam apples ate." [[1]]

The comic refers to postfix notation, also called "reverse polish notation" or RPN for short. It's useful in technical fields. They don't seem to teach it much anymore. Forth used RPN. 130.76.187.47 18:40, 27 July 2026 (UTC)Reply

I this hate.2A02:3032:8D:D3C9:CC6C:37FF:FE64:7969 17:58, 27 July 2026 (UTC)Reply

I THIS ( LOVE NEGATE ) HaruruChanDesu (talk) 04:11, 28 July 2026 (UTC)Reply

Me this comic like. It very funny is! 23.251.194.242 18:22, 27 July 2026 (UTC)Reply

Ergative? Japanese? 24.123.140.66 19:39, 27 July 2026 (UTC)Reply

わたしはフォースが大好きです。61.8.128.78 18:42, 27 July 2026 (UTC)Reply

For those who don’t read Japanese Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji: “Watashi wa Fōsu ga daisuki desu.” which word for word translates to: “I/Me [Topic] (the)Force [Subject] very much like/most like is.” and roughly means: “The Force is my favorite.” or “I love the Force.” (or it could also just mean “I love force.”, but I find that unrealistic.) Rsge (talk) 11:00, 28 July 2026 (UTC)Reply
「フォース」is phonetically "fōsu" and can mean anything from force to fourth. In this case, it's obviously FORTH.Citation needed Kapostamas (talk) 13:19, 28 July 2026 (UTC)Reply
And Japanese is a category 4 language, which is the category that’s hardest for English speakers to learn. By association, that would make Fourth one of the most difficult languages for English speakers to learn. But maybe it’s more popular in Japan.
Weird how people keep saying that. I found Japanese easy to learn. 31.185.224.115 16:43, 29 July 2026 (UTC)Reply

Now... what kind of car is this? RadiantRainwing (talk) 18:44, 27 July 2026 (UTC)Reply

Miscellaneous 2000's car number 3 RG (talk) 02:18, 28 July 2026 (UTC)Reply

Outside of some specialist programming, the most widespread FORTH dialects probably are Adobe's PostScript and the user and programming interface of (most of) Hewlett-Packard's handheld calculators.

Went through Calc III (in 3D!) and all two years of Physics with an HP48G. Plug and chug on that thing was just amazing. 130.76.187.47 11:20, 28 July 2026 (UTC)Reply

Wouldn't it be: I NOTATION POLISH REVERSE ❤️ -> I NOTATION {POLISH ❤️ REVERSE} -> I {POLISH ❤️ REVERSE} NOTATION, regarding ❤️ as an operator and the result as another operator?

I assumed they were unary operators until the final operation is binary. I NOTATION POLISH REVERSE ❤️ -> I NOTATION POLISH {❤️ REVERSE} -> I NOTATION {❤️ REVERSE POLISH} -> I ❤️ REVERSE POLISH NOTATION Solid Kalium (talk) 20:12, 27 July 2026 (UTC)Reply
I saw it as the use of "REVERSE" as an operand element, when populating the stack; "I NOTATION POLISH" are three data-words, the "REVERSE" is a command-word that takes "POLISH" and "NOTATION" off (otherwise interpretable as "POLISH NOTATION", when combined) and redefines it with a "REVERSE" status on them (effectively pushing back onto the stack the the full concept of "REVERSE POLISH NOTATION" in a single element, rather than LISP-like "POLISH NOTATION" format/concept). Then the application of "❤️" upon the stack state of containing both the single RPN-representiion element and 'I' is the operation that links the concept (RPN) and the subject (I) with the idea of there being love of one by the other. 92.23.5.92 20:24, 27 July 2026 (UTC)Reply
I think ❤️ is a binary operator, and both REVERSE and NOTATION are unary operators. Thus, "I POLISH REVERSE NOTATION ❤️" is correct. 2601:19B:4103:97F0:D198:8780:C4AB:3865 21:00, 27 July 2026 (UTC)Reply
You gotta imagine each word coming in one by one:
  • I — A pronoun; an incomplete statement.
  • I notation — A pronoun and a noun; still an incomplete statement.
  • I notation Polish — An adjective comes in, so it applies to the top noun in the stack, resulting in:
  • I Polish_notation — A pronoun and a noun phrase. An incomplete statement.
  • I Polish_notation reverse — Another adjective, go through the same process again.
  • I reverse_Polish_notation — Still an incomplete statement.
  • I reverse_Polish_notation love — A transitive verb comes in, which takes two arguments (subject and direct object). This finally results in the full statement:
  • “I love Reverse Polish Notation.”
Implicitly, since there are no more words, we output that statement as the result. HaruruChanDesu (talk) 03:52, 28 July 2026 (UTC)Reply
I tried to implement this as a program. You can run in with a forth interpreter:
\ nouns are just strings
: we        ( -- c-addr u )                          S" I" ;
: notation  ( -- c-addr u )                          S" notation" ;
\ adjectives prepend to the top of the stack
: reverse   ( c-addr1 u1 -- c-addr2 u2 )             S" reverse " 2swap s+ ;
: polish    ( c-addr1 u1 -- c-addr2 u2 )             S" polish "  2swap s+ ;
\ verbs take subject & object from the stack
: love      ( c-addr1 u1 c-addr2 u2 -- c-addr3 u3 )  S"  ❤️ " 2swap s+ s+ ;

we notation polish reverse love
type
This works, but I couldn't help feeling like it's over-fit to the joke, and a real program generating syntax trees would probably use a different order of arguments to reduce the 2swap calls. Quantum7 (talk) 09:39, 29 July 2026 (UTC)Reply

I don’t think PostScript counts as a Forth dialect — it’s a different postfix language altogether. Same reason Factor, Joy, and Kitten aren’t Forths. If it’s not absurdly minimal, it’s probably not a Forth — you wouldn’t see stunts like PlanckForth with Factor. 2601:2C3:C385:9D30:C54A:3110:3FBE:14E7 20:53, 27 July 2026 (UTC)Reply

I don't know any languages with that notation.Are there any significance to this being a bumper sticker? Is the car reversing and/or driving forward to run the viewer over? This car is going to crash! 2001:1960:2807:E3A0:1D0E:FF76:A5F1:41CA 01:13, 28 July 2026 (UTC)Reply

Well, Forth (a computer language, as explained) is in that notation. It's 'just' self-referential. 92.23.5.92 19:34, 28 July 2026 (UTC)Reply

I myself love; I you me to love want.
I down feel I you me above want when.
I myself search; I you me to find want.
I myself forget; I you me to remind want.

I anybody else want don't.
I you think about I myself touch when. Oh-oh-oh.
I anybody else want don't.
Oh no, oh no, oh no.

You the one are happy me makes who, honey.
You the one are shine me makes who.
Your around are I am laughing always when.
I you mine to make want.

I eyes my close you me before see and.
I die would think you me ignore were to if.
A fool I you adore how much just see could.
I knees my get down on; I for you anything do would.

I myself love; I you me to love want.
I down feel I you me above want when.
I myself search; I you me to find want.
I myself forget; I you me to remind want.

I you want.
I anybody else want don't.
I you think about I myself touch when.
Ooh, oooh, oooooh, aaa-aaah. 2600:4040:5357:4B00:1508:7D08:7588:5B29 01:19, 28 July 2026 (UTC)Reply

I personally saw this as using FORTH as a verbed noun, e.g. "I [program in] FORTH! ❤️ [to express my enthusiasm]." Fun for the whole family, I guess. 7amiþ moi · 💬 · 📊 02:36, 28 July 2026 (UTC)Reply

Yoda FORTH (love) 2A00:23C8:2547:A201:A2FF:CB4D:20F:25C1 06:49, 28 July 2026 (UTC)Reply

Horse The barn the past raced fell. (Only raced is a binary operator) 2A02:1210:2E9E:AC00:3807:C34:C7C:BCF9 05:39, 28 July 2026 (UTC)Reply

love(I, concept(predicate logic)); HaruruChanDesu (talk) 03:43, 28 July 2026 (UTC)Reply

SVO would be "Apples, Sam ate" not "Sam apples ate" --74.87.89.226 13:23, 28 July 2026 (UTC)Reply

SVO is “Sam ate apples”, since Sam is the Subject, ate is the Verb and apples is the Object. “Apples, Sam ate” is OSV; “Sam apples ate” (and “I FORTH love”) is SOV. Kapostamas (talk) 08:16, 29 July 2026 (UTC)Reply

Back in the 1980's when I was actively doing development in Forth, I saw a bumper sticker: "FORTH ❤️ if honk then". 172.7.21.28 14:57, 28 July 2026 (UTC)Reply

Surely that should have been "FORTH ❤️? if honk then" Zmatt (talk) 07:26, 30 July 2026 (UTC)Reply
The version I heard about was "FORTH ?KNOW IF HONK! ELSE FORTH LEARN! THEN" --theoh 2a02:8084:2163:6300:2852:9841:c696:ad11 (talk) 20:45, 11 August 2026 (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Totally stealing this and getting a (❤️ I Clojure) sticker for my laptop. 2600:1010:B341:BACE:6D0B:9F4A:E8DF:B0B0 13:58, 31 July 2026 (UTC)Reply

New Category Proposal: Comics with Emoji[edit]

What do you think? Are there enough comics with emoji to justify a new category in this Wiki? 158.173.21.17 02:30, 28 July 2026 (UTC)Reply

there is already a category for this. see Category:Emoji -- somefan (talk | contribs) 04:00, 28 July 2026 (UTC)Reply
Also the use of a heart on a bumper sticker is not an emoji, this has been used was before anyone invented the phrase emoji. Just because we use emoji to represent this in the transcript and explanation do not qualify this comic as one using emoji in my opionion. The title text is just another bumper sticker. But maybe comics with bumper stickers could be something that has been used some times before? If enough then maybe such a category? --Kynde (talk) 09:09, 28 July 2026 (UTC)Reply
i concur on proposing the bumper sticker category! As far as i've searched, only four comics would adhere to this -- somefan (talk | contribs) 22:25, 28 July 2026 (UTC)Reply
I don't see anything wrong with that - Quite a few categories only have a few comics in them, like the Home Inspection category. GSLikesCats306 (talk) 09:57, 29 July 2026 (UTC)Reply

Unrelated: My dad got me an HP RPN calculator (HP 32S, the best!) as a high school graduation present before I went off to engineering school in the 1990s. Before I figured out how to use spreadsheets for engineering calculations, it was my favorite thing. I loved it so much. The very best part about it was that nobody would ever ask to borrow my calculator more than once. Jonesey (talk) 15:29, 29 July 2026 (UTC)Reply