Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!ucsd!ucbvax!ENG.SUN.COM!Mitch.Bradley
From: Mitch.Bradley@ENG.SUN.COM
Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth
Subject: Re: Problems not solved by START:
Message-ID: <9105061916.AA00353@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 6 May 91 17:27:10 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: Mitch.Bradley%ENG.SUN.COM@SCFVM.GSFC.NASA.GOV
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 27

>    The function of START:, as I do perceive, is to factor
> the naming process from the definition process, which will
> allow the creation of nameless definitions.
> ...
>    I'm not sure wheter this degree of portability is possible using
> START: on it's own.
> ...
>   I think the only way to hide this `intimate knowledge' (system dependency)
> is to add yet another word called ;END (or START; (*)) that will perform
> ;'s function without the name processing.

At the emergency ANS Forth meeting last week, we voted to change START: so
it is just like ":" without a name.  The new version can be closed with ";"
or ";CODE" .  Thus, John Haye's example would now be written:

   : :CMD ( n -- w sys ) :NONAME ;
   : ;CMD ( n w sys -- )
      POSTPONE ;      ( n w )
      SWAP CELLS CMD-TABLE + !
   ; IMMEDIATE

> (*) I'm not sure about the etymology of START: ;
> ...

As you can see in the above example, the name was changed to :NONAME

Mitch.Bradley@Eng.Sun.COM