Mike first fell in love with Forth when he ported FIG Forth to a home-brew 6800 system. He worked with Brian and Jim on the design of a Forth chip and is also a 'C' programmer. Mike is also working on networking software for the Macintosh. His work on JForth includes the assembly language kernel (the foundation of JForth), the Amiga system interface, CLONE, Modules, the CALL facility that makes the Amiga libraries accessible, and more. Mike also developed Textra, the text editor for programmers, and LCDCalc, an attractive calculator that looks like a desktop LCD model.
Phil became a Forth fan developing code for a music system running on a, then state of the art, S-100 68000 system. He has developed a Forth for the VAX and for a home-brew 68000 computer. He worked first as a physicist, then later developed interactive graphics/mapping systems on mainframes using 'C' and FORTRAN. His hardware projects have included small custom computers, guitar to MIDI converters, and synthesizer modules. His work on JForth includes structures, ODE , the graphics toolboxes, the '.j' files, Hashing, History, Source Level Debugger, IFF, the new local variables, and many demos. Phil also works on HMSL, the Hierarchical Music Specification Language. HMSL is an experimental composition language based on JForth. One of Phil's latest interests is in developing real time sound synthesis software using the 56000 Digital Signal Processor.
Brian first became interested in Forth when he saw a complete 8080 macro assembler contained within a 1/4 page footnote in an IEEE magazine. He has been programming for about 10 years doing mostly Forth, assembly and 'C'. His hardware projects have included electromechanical games, electric vehicles, telephone network testers, smart refrigerators and the design of a custom Forth processor. Brian has also worked with Novix on their Forth processor. His work on JForth includes part of the kernel, the original local variables, vocabularies, WORDS-LIKE, multistandard, and more.
Jim is a chemist, a musician, an attorney, and an electrical engineer. He is also a 'C' and Forth programmer. He has worked with Mike and Brian on the Forth chip, and other hardware projects including audio digital signal processors. He helped put together the manual, and did quality assurance.