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From: wmb@MITCH.ENG.SUN.COM
Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth
Subject: Take my wife, please
Message-ID: <9101222212.AA11941@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 22 Jan 91 21:44:10 GMT
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Reply-To: wmb%MITCH.ENG.SUN.COM@SCFVM.GSFC.NASA.GOV
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> (Someone should make a test implementation -- they were doing that
> for a while -- and let the Forth Community see what would be involved
> if she were to become a companion for life.)

Even as we speak, Martin Tracy is updating Zen to comply with Basis 14.
I spent several hours on the phone with him this weekend going over various
implementation details to make sure that the implementation agrees with
the intention of Basis.  In the process, Martin has made a list of areas
where Basis 14 is not clear, so that Basis 15 can tighten up the language.

This wife analogy is being taken too far.  I originally brought it up to
illustrate the point that, in any decision, a person weighs advantages
and disadvantages according to a set of personal weighting factors;
there is no such thing as the "absolute essence of Forth for every
person", any more than there is a single woman who would make an ideal
wife for every man.

Fortunately, I got to choose my wife without regard to what a lot of
other people thought, and I am not expected to share her with thousands
of people.

In the privacy of your own home, you can use any Forth system you want,
or make your own personal Forth system according to your whim.  Different
rules apply for the creation of a public standard.

Mitch Bradley, wmb@Eng.Sun.COM