Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!att!ucbvax!SUN.COM!wmb
From: wmb@SUN.COM
Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth
Subject: Re: ANS FORTH/PICK and ROLL
Message-ID: <8911170645.AA20490@jade.berkeley.edu>
Date: 17 Nov 89 02:52:56 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: Forth Interest Group International List <FIGI-L%SCFVM.bitnet@jade.berkeley.edu>
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 14

> There is *no* technical reason to require this "TO" abomination.

Actually, that turns out not to be the case.  If you use @ and !,
the data must be stored in addressable memory.  With TO, the local
variables can be stored in registers or on a special hardware stack
or in a different segment.

A lot of people I have talked to really like "TO" variables
(or QUANs or VALUEs or whatever you want to call them).  Even in the
ANSI standard group, where even the seemingly most trivial point can
trigger bloody arguments, there seemed to be no opposition to the "TO"
semantics.

Mitch