Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!ists!yunexus!maccs!ns
From: ns@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca (Nick Solntseff)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth
Subject: Re: New Directions: Forth is not postfix
Message-ID: <25C9CFEE.22487@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca>
Date: 2 Feb 90 18:22:37 GMT
References: <284.UUL1.3#5129@willett.UUCP> <2.71SW6xds13@ficc.uu.net> <51523@bbn.COM>
Reply-To: ns@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca (Nick Solntseff)
Organization: McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario
Lines: 19

Some people might prefer an if-statement of the form

     <condition> <then clause> <else clause> IF_THEN_ELSE

but nested if-statements would present parsing problems to the human reader.
Even a pair of nested if-statements might cause trouble.

In my opinion, the objection should be levelled at the name of the IF-WORD and
not the whole construct.  If 

     IF were renamed THEN and
     THEN renamed ELSE and
     Else were quietly removed, 

we would be able to write

      <condition> THEN <true part> ELSE <false part>

-- a much better construct!