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From: ForthNet@willett.pgh.pa.us (ForthNet articles from GEnie)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth
Subject: X3J14 Holding Pattern Here
Message-ID: <1617.UUL1.3#5129@willett.pgh.pa.us>
Date: 27 Aug 90 03:31:01 GMT
Organization: String, Scotch tape, and Paperclips.  (in Pgh, PA)
Lines: 48

Category 10,  Topic 12
Message 33        Sun Aug 26, 1990
R.BERKEY [Robert]            at 19:52 PDT
 
  Just back from the Vancouver ANS meeting.  Tedious is the word that comes to
mind, as work days stretched to 14 hours.  For example, an amendment was made,
seconded, and passed to change "located" to "specified" in a proposal for the
text of a BASIS definition.  That proposal then failed to pass, and it was
time to repeat the "specified" amendment in a closely related proposal.  Dave
Harralson opined that it was a "labor of love".  Facilities were excellent
thanks to Jack Brown's coordination and the BCIT hospitality.  (And I thought
the cookies were outstanding!)

Division proposals were acted upon.  FM/MOD , SM/MOD and M*/ remain, while M/
and M/MOD are gone.  In the single-length set, / /MOD MOD */ */MOD and 2/ have
reverted to the pre-BASIS11 versions, with a proviso that programs cannot use
these words with negative parameters if the "form of the result matters".

In the floating-point area, implementations can place the values on either the
parameter stack or a floating-point stack, as programs can be organized so as
to not care which is used.

The committee's scope of work has been reduced to primarily consider one's and
two's complement ALU's; and clarifies "extensions", which cannot be considered
before there is a finished ANS Forth.

Remaining burning issues are led by cleanup and rationale.

BASIS13 will be out sooner than last time, as the new editor is ready to go
this time around.  But note that the next meeting is Nov. 6, so that if
BASIS13 arrives by the first week in Oct, there may be only a couple of weeks
to get proposals in before the two-week mailing.  BASIS will again be posted
online, but the committee has made a clear decision that it is "forbidden" to
redistribute BASIS in other than the original (Word) format.

Saw the BCFB up close and personal!  I found it amusing to see this ordinary
computer that takes on larger than life dimensions from thousands of miles
away.  It was also a personal pleasure to meet some of the Forth experts from
the Vancouver area, including several of the frequent ForthNet contributors.

 Robert

<To paraphrase from other postings: I don't speak for ANS X3.J14, and they
don't speak for me.  My phone number is (415) 659-1334 x352.>

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