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From: oster@dewey.soe.berkeley.edu (David Phillip Oster)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth
Subject: Re: File handling tips
Message-ID: <28540@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: 25 Mar 89 06:11:21 GMT
References: <8903241905.AA06041@jade.berkeley.edu> <1270@hudson.acc.virginia.edu>
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One advantage of traditional "blocks" over files:

When your program crashes during LOAD, it is easier to fix it up and
continue, rather than FORGETing everything and restarting the load:

One pseudo-advantage:

Since Forth is a postfix language, the only reasonable way of pretty
printing is to make the structures line up on the RIGHT edge, not the LEFT
as in prefix languages:


: Example ( - )
        TEST1 IF
     TEST2 IF
  TEST3 IF
   BODY
     ENDIF
        ENDIF
          ENDIF
;

(The colon lines up on the left edge, because IT is prefix.)

With a blocks file, this doesn't cost any more space than any other way of
writing the word.  In a text file, you must fight your frugal impulses to
be sparing of those white space characters.