A clear analogy for printing characters to the screen is found:
(Actually, despite this funny graphic, Leo Brodie's old 'Starting Forth' is a good book.)
I worked on this little thing called Blogger for over 5 years, some of them at Pyra, most of them at Google. Now I work at Twitter. You can reach me via email at stevej _at_ pobox.com.
My views are my own and not those of my employer. I have a lengthy disclaimer available at Klondike 5-4385.