Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!pt.cs.cmu.edu!dsl.pitt.edu!pitt!willett!dwp From: dwp@willett.pgh.pa.us (Doug Philips) Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth Subject: Re: Factoring of CREATE Message-ID: <1628.UUL1.3#5129@willett.pgh.pa.us> Date: 29 Aug 90 03:14:49 GMT References: <9008241529.AA27873@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> Organization: String, Scotch tape, and Paperclips. (in Pgh, PA) Lines: 37 In <9008241529.AA27873@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>, wmb@MITCH.ENG.SUN.COM writes: MB> Of course, this implies that EACH of those "other words" will need string MB> versions too, i.e. $: $VARIABLE $CONSTANT $CODE and any other defining MB> words that are present in one's system. PDS> I'm not sure that's the right way to factor them. Better would be a word PDS> that created an anonymous thing ... and a word that names an object: PDS> : ... ; foo define 3 variable bar define MB> I agree, your way is better. I was pointing out the implications of the MB> $CREATE solution to show its weakness. I'm glad you did. If I were to start over I would not make a bunch of $ words from which to build the traditional words. MB> The problem with your solution (shall we call it the "PostScript way"?) MB> is that it's hard to get there from Forth. It's not hard to implement MB> nor is it technically flawed; it's just that it would be hard to obtain MB> consensus on such a scheme within the Forth community. As we have seen with the X3J14 effort, its hard to get consensus about ANYTHING in the Forth community. MB> I think that the QUOTE-TO solution (e.g. " foo" ' : quote-to ) MB> is the best solution that could have a chance of being widely accepted MB> in the Forth community. Sigh. Here we go adding more band-aids and scotch tape to shore up a flawed system. Well, at least it would likely be more portable than starting from scratch. -Doug --- Preferred: ( dwp@willett.pgh.pa.us OR ...!{sei,pitt}!willett!dwp ) Daily: ...!{uunet,nfsun}!willett!dwp [last resort: dwp@vega.fac.cs.cmu.edu]