Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!att!linac!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think.com!mintaka!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!Teknowledge.COM!unix!garth!tom
From: tom@garth.UUCP (Tom Granvold)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth
Subject: Re: Re: Conventions and "tricks" used in Forth
Message-ID: <111@garth.UUCP>
Date: 1 Nov 90 21:15:55 GMT
References: <9010261354.AA01446@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Organization: INTERGRAPH (APD) -- Palo Alto, CA
Lines: 22

In article <9010261354.AA01446@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> wmb%MITCH.ENG.SUN.COM@SCFVM.GSFC.NASA.GOV writes:
>> I have wondered for a long time why one doesn't hear of checking for
>> numbers before words.

    examples removed.

>The point is that there is no syntactic way in Forth to distinguish a number
>from a word, given that the number input base can be hex.  Checking for
>numbers first would remove some plausible words from the name space.  In
>fact, the common word CFA , found in many pre-Forth-83 systems, parses as
>a valid hex number.
>
>Mitch Bradley, wmb@Eng.Sun.COM

    Yes, but doesn't checking for words first remove some plausible values
from the numbers that can be used :-)

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Name:    Tom Granvold
Mail:    2400 Geng Rd., Palo Alto, Calif., 94303
UUCP:    ucbvax!decvax!decwrl!pyramid!garth!tom
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