Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!midway!ncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!sdd.hp.com!ucsd!ucbvax!BRFAPESP.BITNET!UNBCIC
From: UNBCIC@BRFAPESP.BITNET
Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth
Subject: ANS Forth
Message-ID: <9102011400.AA24433@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 31 Jan 91 21:34:00 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: UNBCIC%BRFAPESP.BITNET@SCFVM.GSFC.NASA.GOV
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 49

>    This would be my vote. If you want string handlers, fine. Add them. Do

If they are not fast, they are not useful for me.

>    NOT make them part of the core word set. I have no ax to grind with LEX,

Not CORE word set! STRING word set!

>    SED, or SNOBAL for that matter, just don't put them in my kernel.

And, anyway, if they were in the core, just write, in plain Forth, the words,
and provide the source in documentation. No need to be in CORE. In fact, I
would be more happy if they were provided as source in disk, as long as they
were fast.

> >RE a "portability" wordset with ALIGN etc.:

>     This question pits the side of me that wants portability against the
>     side that wants a small, tight kernel. IF I HAD TO CHOSE THIS MINUTE
>     I would opt for trashing it, but I would like to see the pros and
>     cons argued (rationally) first.

Well, imagine if I have need to a word that creates something like that:

: ID CREATE CHAR " WORD ( Need to get HERE ? ) C@ 1+ ALLOT ( Alocate name )
            ( place ALIGN here ) , ( Alocate age )
            CHAR " WORD ( Need to get HERE ? I don't know the stack diagram for
WORD in ANS Forth...) C@ 1+ ALLOT ( Alocate address ) ;

And use this like this:

20 ID Daniel C. Sobral"SHIN QL 8 Conj. 8 Casa 1"

Without the ALIGN in the right position, this, probably, won't run in a Forth
for Macintosh, for example. See, my name have an even number of bytes, one more
byte for the counter and --- if I didn't get an even value at HERE --- the ,
would proceed an ilegal operation.

If the comma automatically ALIGN the address, I would still have problems when
accessing my age with @.

If the @ too automatically ALIGN the address, I would still have problemwhen
calculating the start of my address.

If you need more arguments, please say so. I'll provide them.

                              (8-DCS)
Daniel C. Sobral
UNBCIC@BRFAPESP