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From: dwp@willett.UUCP (Doug Philips)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth
Subject: Re: Vocabularies
Message-ID: <1474.UUL1.3#5129@willett.UUCP>
Date: 7 Aug 90 02:24:28 GMT
References: <9008031606.AA06458@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Organization: String, Scotch tape, and Paperclips.  (in Pgh, PA)
Lines: 43

[Questions are "aimed" at Mr. Bradley only as a "stylistic" device, so
please feel free to reply. -dwp]

In <9008031606.AA06458@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>, wmb@MITCH.ENG.SUN.COM writes:

> Sure.  Adding these capabilities doesn't detract from what is already
> there, unless "Forth as we know it" implies "missing obvious functionality"

Hmm.  If you started grafting postscript's "def" and other "true
postfixness" on top of Forth, would you still call it Forth?  Could you
"have the best of both worlds" that way?  (Not intended as a rhetorical
question.)

> I claim yes, based on the fact that nearly all Forth systems have them
> in some form or other.  Unfortunately, there is very little consistency
> among implementations in this area.

Given that diversity, I'm prompted to ask: Why?
Is the diversity due to (more than one answer is OK):

	A)  Different needs shaping different implementations
	B)  Vocabularies are a not yet well understood part of Forth,
		so that the different implementations are more of the
		nature of experiments?
	C)  Due to the independent nature of Forth programmers:
		"Oh, I can do it better *my* way"  (1/2 :-)
	D)  ??? (Fill in the blank here if you chose this answer).

I'm not familiar with many Forth implementations, so I'll put this out to
those that are:

Is there some underlying commonality that can be factored "out of" the
existing vocabulary implementations, such that each may be "rebuilt"
from those more primitive words?  I don't mean to imply that every
hare-brained vocabulary definition must be considered, but I would hope
that most of the "high-use as defined by number of users" implementations
would be.

-Doug

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