Its most distinctive characteristic was the choice of Forth, a structured language allowing programs to be written that would run almost as fast as the compiled languages loaded by more expensive computers.
Forth was considered well adapted to microcomputers with their small memory and relatively low-performance processors.
Forth programs are memory-efficient; as they become bigger, they reuse more previously-defined code.
Control structures could be nested to any level, limited only by available memory.
This allowed complex programs to be implemented, even allowing recursive programming.
The ACE's Forth was "ten times faster than Basic" and used less than half the memory (a significant cost percentage of low end computers of the time) of an equivalent program written in interpreted BASIC.
It also allowed easy implementation of machine code routines if needed.

ACE's Forth was based mostly on Forth-79, with some relevant differences, in particular it added syntax checking to control structures and definer constructions and a few extra words were added based on common BASIC sound, video and tape commands.
The implementation lacked some less frequently used Forth words, these being easily implemented if needed.
Runtime error checking could be turned off to raise speed by 25% to 50%.
Its most distinctive characteristic was the choice of Forth, a structured language allowing programs to be written that would run almost as fast as the compiled languages loaded by more expensive computers. Forth was considered well adapted to microcomputers with their small memory and relatively low-performance processors. Forth programs are memory-efficient; as they become bigger, they reuse more previously-defined code. Control structures could be nested to any level, limited only by available memory. This allowed complex programs to be implemented, even allowing recursive programming. The ACE's Forth was "ten times faster than Basic" and used less than half the memory (a significant cost percentage of low end computers of the time) of an equivalent program written in interpreted BASIC. It also allowed easy implementation of machine code routines if needed.
ACE's Forth was based mostly on Forth-79, with some relevant differences, in particular it added syntax checking to control structures and definer constructions and a few extra words were added based on common BASIC sound, video and tape commands. The implementation lacked some less frequently used Forth words, these being easily implemented if needed. Runtime error checking could be turned off to raise speed by 25% to 50%.
Jupiter Ace