NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #1/NN_1993_1.iso/spool/comp/lang/forth/3810

Text File | 1993-01-08 | 3.4 KB | 76 lines

Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth
Path: sparky!uunet!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wupost!spool.mu.edu!yale.edu!ira.uka.de!fauern!lrz-muenchen.de!informatik.tu-muenchen.de!pazsan
From: [e-mail] (Bernd Paysan)
Subject: Re: Documenting
References: <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
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Organization: Technische Universitaet Muenchen, Germany
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1993 14:40:03 GMT
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Thanks, Kevin for pointing out what is the essential reason for using
screens in Forth.

I use screens and streamfiles both. Because I work under host OSs
(Atari TOS and MS-DOS since last week), my screens are in host files
and I use the host directory for naming the file. Transparent work with
both screens and streamfiles is easy and possible; my editor has both
modes and chooses automatically. Loading from the cursor position is
possible with both formats. Easy inserting or deleting screens or
lines. I use a nearly horizontal format both in screens and
streamfiles. To show structures, I use spaces, capital notation of
structure words, lowercase notation of other words and a capital letter
followed by lowercase for creating words. if an IF ELSE THEN statement
has more than 3 or 4 words in it, I break it up in lines and I indent,
certainly. The same with assembler. Registers are uppercase, mnemonics
are lowercase, structures uppercase and indented. Certainly there are
some crowded words in old sources; because they are old, they are
screen sources ;-).

Disk size: If you really have problems with your source and your 100 MB
HD, use SuperStore or how it is named, it is designed to compact your
screen files. If you like your stream editor and like to write vertical
code like

: DOGJUMP
    THE    \ article
    QUICK    \ fast, moving like a flash
    BROWN    \ a dark read-yellow color
    FOX    \ a fast wildbeast with brown hairs
    JUMPS    \ moving up into the air
    OVER    \ above
    THE    \ yet another article
    LAZY    \ doing almost nothing
    DOG    \ a domesticated wulf
;
\ I'm not shure to remember all the comments correctly.

do it. Buy a Forth that allows the use of stream files. Or write your
block>stream tool (you should have host OS files as blocks). That's
what I did with my bigFORTH. I scan through the block file for
linefeads, delete the last cariage return and copy that into the TIB.
Someone has to do this anyway (and if it's the host OS). I would prefer
counted strings in streamfiles, because they don't require scanning,
but once I start with streamfiles, compatibility to the host OS is
required.

I grew up with screens and I like them. I like horizontal notation. I
use it in stream files, too. I hate people writing 2-page words in
stream files. Once upon a time a bigFORTH user sent me a tool for
stack checking. He implemented a word named (S and then scanned in a
very big loop for the strings until the next ")". Then he compared the
word found with several strings, like "d" or "n" or "addr" and so on.
He was proud that it was working, and every new type would have
required one additional line in his (S. The easy solution was to use
the dictionary and FIND.

>There are no complex problems; only complex solutions!

That's it!
--
Bernd Paysan
"Late answers are wrong answers!"