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From: ForthNet@willett.pgh.pa.us (ForthNet articles from GEnie)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth
Subject: Blocks vs Text files
Message-ID: <1860.UUL1.3#5129@willett.pgh.pa.us>
Date: 15 Oct 90 03:06:47 GMT
Organization: String, Scotch tape, and Paperclips.  (in Pgh, PA)
Lines: 47

Category 10,  Topic 6
Message 46        Sun Oct 14, 1990
F.SERGEANT [Frank]           at 20:04 CDT
 
  MB> I think it is funny when people claim that blocks enforce ...

     I may not agree with you in every respect about every thing, however,  I
too have felt it is ridiculous to use as an argument for blocks that they 
constrain you in some way.  As you point out, it is especially inconsistent 
to use such an argument in **Forth**!

     I suppose Dashiell Hammett is my favorite author of all time.  Here is  a
quote from Ryerson Johnson, who attended a writing class by Hammett,  quoting
Hammett:

               Hammett slammed his hand down flat on the table,
          glared around the room in what seemed hopeless despair.
          "Oh, for Christ's sake," he said.  "Go home and write
          your story any goddamn way you want to."

     That is just about my attitude these days on whether programs should  be
written in blocks or text files.

     Personally, I'm still, fairly happily, using blocks for Forth source.  
It is all I've used except for brief experiments.  I don't consider it a 
closed decision, though.  Blocks don't completely suit me, especially for 
CODE definitions, but so far they suit me better than text files.  I've 
speculated that the editor is the overriding factor, rather than whether  the
source is in blocks or text files.  Mine's fairly comfortable, with the 
ability to spread open to insert new blocks, and squeeze out empty blocks.   I
look forward to doing some more experimenting in this whole area of  managing
source code.

     (On the other hand, I've done a lot of programming over the years in a 
variety of languages using text files with everything from line editors to 
full-screen editors, with the exception of EMACS.  I gather it has some 
strong points, but I haven't yet grasped what it is all about.)

     Maybe source code should be managed in a system that looks something 
like an outline processor, where we can easily shift levels and hide or 
expose details.  This might be called a hierarchical, variable sized block 
system.

  -- Frank
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