Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!agate!ucbvax!van-bc!rsoft!mindlink!a684
From: Nick_Janow@mindlink.bc.ca (Nick Janow)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: AvAaA: (try Forth?)
Message-ID: <5816@mindlink.bc.ca>
Date: 10 May 91 16:58:21 GMT
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
Lines: 34

> I'm not that familiar with Forth, so: is there any special reason that your
> examples use upper case?

No, just a way of keeping them separate from the rest of the sentence.  It's a
habit from this local bbs: we always use upper case when referring to system
commands (like INCLUDing part of a message).

In Forth, I use upper and lower case as I see fit.  Since there are no absolute
rules about it, people develop personal styles, so you'll see some people using
upper case for core commands and lower case for others, and other people using
the opposite.

We (the Forth community) are presently working on an ANS standard Forth.  I
don't think readability has been addressed.  I'll bring the issue up in the
Forth group; it might be worthwhile adding a standard writing style.

Of course, there'd probably be a very loud outcry at the thought of any
restrictions on personal coding style.  :)

In case you haven't looked at "Thinking Forth" yet because you don't know
Forth, take a look anyways.  It's more a programming philosophy book than a
language reference.


> The parameters handed through the interface, and the results and return
> control point, can be declared in a fixed piece of RAM.  This saves the cost
> of continually grabbing and releasing space off of stacks.

There are several high-speed "stack machines" available now (Harris RTX series,
SC32, a couple from Chuck Moore {designer of Forth}).  These chips are
optimized to run Forth and have hardware stacks, multiple references (can
access both stacks and memory simultaneously) and have one-cycle subroutine
call with zero-cycle return.  These are _fast_ chips.  You might want to look
into them for your adjective/adverb language.