home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Tech Arsenal 1
/
Tech Arsenal (Arsenal Computer).ISO
/
tek-04
/
msh20.zip
/
MSHFILES.ZIP
/
DESIGN.DOC
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1992-02-03
|
2KB
|
30 lines
Before you make suggestions, let me explain a few of the design decisions
of MSH so you make your suggestions knowingly.
- The language: why is it Forth-like? I wanted to have the whole language
compiler/interpreter/debugger fit in very little memory (currently about
15K of code) -- only Forth fits this bill. I agree with people who find
that Forth is hard to read and maintain -- hopefully the debugger alleviates
that somewhat. I have considered replacing the language with a Lisp-like
language. Though I find that much better than Forth, I am not sure everybody
agrees. Please do not suggest to me replacing the language with a Basic-like
language, I won't do it out of personal distaste. I won't consider also
a C or Pascal-like language unless you tell me how to write the whole thing
including debugger under 25K of code. Despite the above considerations, I
am really open to any suggestion- provided it is based on sound knowledge
rather than wild speculation.
- Why is the mouse interface not exactly CUA? Well -- I tried. The problem
is that I did not want to complicate the language by distinguishing
between menus and submenus -- that's why it does not "know" to go to the
next submenu when you scan the mouse across the top row. May be I could
solve the problem with a more object-oriented design -- precise suggestions
welcome.
- Why are there no fancy decorations like shadows on the windows?
I am using a curses package in the hope of porting the code some day --
if you tell me how to write shadowed windows under curses, I will do it
(actually I have access to the curses source code and would consider
making some small changes to it to implement that).