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From: ForthNet@willett.UUCP (ForthNet articles from GEnie)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth
Subject: HS/Forth
Message-ID: <684.UUL1.3#5129@willett.UUCP>
Date: 21 Mar 90 00:14:19 GMT
Organization: Latest link in the ForthNet chain.  (Pgh, PA)
Lines: 50


 Date: 03-18-90 (18:15)              Number: 3043 (Echo)
   To: ALL                           Refer#: NONE
 From: BILL MCCARTHY                   Read: HAS REPLIES
 Subj: NEW RELEASE OF HS/FORTH       Status: PUBLIC MESSAGE

 HS/Forth 4.11 arrived this week with the updated FOOPS and the
 new FORTRAN package called FORTE.

 I haven't had a chance to review the FOOPS package other than to
 note that the documentation is up to 8 pages and although there
 is a TST file demonstrating the creation and use of objects, no
 sample application is yet provided (such as Turbo Pascal's FORMS
 package for generating input forms - one of the messiest parts of
 programming).

 To load FORTE, you must be in INTEGERS mode and have not loaded
 RSTACK.  There is a nasty bug in the package.  FORTRAN.HSF defines
 (or redefines, if STRINGS is loaded) the word $+ incorrectly (it
 doesn't leave an address on the stack) but the usage is OK for
 this modified definition.  In DOFTH.HSF, $+ is defined correctly
 but the usage is for the incorrectly defined $+.  This later
 inconsistency probably won't show up, because DOFTH.HSF is loaded
 after FORTRAN.HSF (so $+ won't be redefined correctly).

 You can fix this problem by correcting the definition of $+ and
 modifying the usages or by calling it something else, such as F$+
 and changing $+ to F$+ throughout FORTRAN.HSF and DOFTH.HSF.

 Once I got things going, my first test was for SPEED!  I executed
 the code a=(b+c)/(d+e) 25,000 times in FORTE with REAL*8 precision
 and against the R80VARs approach with and without optimizing.  To
 round out the test, I also repeated in FPC (8 bytes), Turbo Pascal
 (Extended 10 byte) and Turbo C (long double 10 byte).  Results:

 Times in secs   386/16      PC

 FORTE           34.88     270.34
 VARs No Opt      1.31       6.47
 VARs Optimized   1.04       4.88

 FPC-3.50         3.30      20.65

 Turbo Pascal      .99       4.61
 Turbo C          1.04       4.67

  Simply pitiful.
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