[zengargoyle]

Forth is a really nice language for learning raw machine code then adding an assembler then moving up to a HLL in a few printed pages of code. The ultimate macro assembler. Back in 1986 teenage me found this library book that described Forth as "a ball of mud" which later made sense. A small core of machine specific bits form the core, you have to make that by hand. Then you accumulate and write an assembler on top of that. Then there's the I/O and logistics of the system. Then there's the whole interpreter/compiler all the same. It's the ultimate bootstrap. From laying down bytes in memory to a hybrid interpreter/compiler that you can say "take this word and make it a thing" and it can fart out this little polished turd.

Forth is a ball of mud that you start at the beginning and at the end you end up with a shiny turd of a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorodango.

Forth is bottom up insted of top down. The concepts teaching/learning wise start at the bottom and lead up to the top. You can't learn that starting with Python or Fortran or C or BASIC, or even Assembler. Bottom up.

Forth might not be the best Pascal/Basic/Python learning some stuff language, but Forth is the best bits in memory to HLL "full-stack" language.

I wish your brother had done it on raw hardware instead of in Java. It is a really nice language for learning.