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Groups > comp.lang.forth > #1427

Re: String Constants

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Andrew Haley <andrew29@littlepinkcloud.invalid> writes:
>I'd simply make it clear that using HERE before it was allotted was
>nonstandard, and then the problem would go away.

No, that would create (or, if it exists now, widen) the problem: You
would put a hole in the standard where common practice exists.

That approach gave us ANSI C, a standard for language lawyers, not
programmers, which consequently has no useful programs: whenever a
language lawyer looks closely at a supposedly-standard useful program,
he finds that it is actually not conforming to ANSI C, similar to what
you suggest in <EOmdnfzW8ZdkNSzQnZ2dnUVZ_gidnZ2d@supernews.com>:

|I wonder what would happen if someone not steeped in Forth tradition
|implemented the langauge from the standard; I wonder how many
|supposedly standard programs would cease to work.

>The alternative
>plan, which doesn't make sense to me, is harder.

Sure it's a little more work and less elegant, but as this discussion
has illustrated, there are programs where it does make a difference;
and, depending on the other available features of the system, the hole
you want to create is at least cumbersome to work around or (without
ALLOCATE) it may even be impossible.

So, how can this stuff be specified if it is not already: Say
explicitly:

|The UNUSED space after HERE is accessible, and it may contain the
|WORD buffer, the pictured numeric output buffer, and PAD [did I
|forget anything?].  The addresses of these buffers may change when
|HERE may change.

That should be all.  It codifies what current systems are doing, and
implies the restrictions that come from that without introducing
additional restrictions.

- anton
-- 
M. Anton Ertl  http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/anton/home.html
comp.lang.forth FAQs: http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/forth/faq/toc.html
     New standard: http://www.forth200x.org/forth200x.html
   EuroForth 2010: http://www.euroforth.org/ef10/

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Re: String Constants anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) - 2011-04-22 17:44 +0000
  Re: String Constants BruceMcF <agila61@netscape.net> - 2011-04-22 11:59 -0700
  Re: String Constants Elizabeth D Rather <erather@forth.com> - 2011-04-22 10:08 -1000
    IOW t'was [Re: String Constants] Richard Owlett <rowlett@pcnetinc.com> - 2011-04-22 21:05 -0500
    Re: String Constants Andrew Haley <andrew29@littlepinkcloud.invalid> - 2011-04-23 03:14 -0500
      Re: String Constants anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) - 2011-04-23 11:29 +0000
        Re: String Constants Andrew Haley <andrew29@littlepinkcloud.invalid> - 2011-04-24 03:06 -0500
      Re: String Constants Elizabeth D Rather <erather@forth.com> - 2011-04-23 09:35 -1000

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