Re: Programming Style

From	anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl)
Newsgroups	comp.lang.forth
Subject	Re: Programming Style
Date	2013-06-17 15:37 +0000
Organization	Institut fuer Computersprachen, Technische Universitaet Wien
Message-ID	<2013Jun17.173731@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at> (permalink)
References	(5 earlier) <kpbqbg$ivj$1@speranza.aioe.org> <OtudnaKv18s78yTMnZ2dnUVZ_uCdnZ2d@supernews.com> <kpdnhb$thc$1@speranza.aioe.org> <2013Jun14.141216@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at> <kpmrkg$duv$1@speranza.aioe.org>

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"Ed" <invalid@invalid.com> writes:
>Anton Ertl wrote:
>> "Ed" <invalid@invalid.com> writes:
>> >I agree.  It is the ability of an application to define error codes which
>> >it can later intercept - that is most important.
>>
>> Not in my experience.
>>
>> In my experience the things that are most important are:
>>
>> *) Simple error handling for various system conditions, e.g.,
>>  "ALLOCATE THROW" or "OPEN-FILE THROW" that results in useful error
>>  messages without much ado.  Unfortunately the correspondence between
>>  iors and throw codes is not guaranteed by the standard, but every
>>  sane system implements it.
>
>What's wrong with using ABORT" ?  It's likely to be superior since
>the message can be tailored to suit the application.

If you prefer to use ABORT", go ahead and use it.  I don't find the
need to tailor a message for ALLOCATE THROW, though, and I find the
messages produced through OPEN-FILE THROW much superior to anything I
could do with ABORT".  The latter is because OPEN-FILE returns
different IORs for different error conditions, e.g., "File not found"
and "Permission denied", to name the most common ones.

>The ANS codes typically represent fatal conditions which can't be
>recovered.

Really?  Why do you think so?

>> Well, the program can now rely on the knowledge that, if it catches a
>> -17 from the system, there was a numeric buffer overflow.  The program
>> might then behave in a nicer way on systems that produce such an
>> exception.  It's not something I have used yet, though.
>
>I'm not surprised since it represents a fatal error.

Why do you think so?

>In specifying THROW codes for each system error, ANS propagates
>the fiction that the programmer can do something about them.

They can, although I think that usually the recovery is independent of
the actual code.

Hmm, although I have not used the standard recovery codes much in my
programs, I have found them useful when using simpler Forth systems.
E.g., when I see "-13" as error output, I know there's an "undefined
word".

- 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 2013: http://www.euroforth.org/ef13/

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Programming Style rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2013-06-09 14:33 -0400
  Re: Programming Style Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2013-06-09 11:42 -0700
    Re: Programming Style rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2013-06-09 15:22 -0400
  Re: Programming Style "WJ" <w_a_x_man@yahoo.com> - 2013-06-09 19:16 +0000
    Re: Programming Style rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2013-06-09 15:36 -0400
      Re: Programming Style Roberto Waltman <usenet@rwaltman.com> - 2013-06-09 22:17 -0400
    Re: Programming Style rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2013-06-22 09:53 -0400
  Re: Programming Style humptydumpty <ouatubi@gmail.com> - 2013-06-10 00:31 -0700
    Re: Programming Style rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2013-06-10 11:08 -0400
      Re: Programming Style humptydumpty <ouatubi@gmail.com> - 2013-06-10 11:09 -0700
        Re: Programming Style rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2013-06-10 18:56 -0400
          Re: Programming Style "Elizabeth D. Rather" <erather@forth.com> - 2013-06-10 15:31 -1000
            Re: Programming Style rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2013-06-11 23:10 -0400
  Re: Programming Style albert@spenarnc.xs4all.nl (Albert van der Horst) - 2013-06-10 08:32 +0000
    Re: Programming Style rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2013-06-10 11:12 -0400
      Re: Programming Style albert@spenarnc.xs4all.nl (Albert van der Horst) - 2013-06-10 17:22 +0000
      Re: Programming Style Mark Wills <markrobertwills@yahoo.co.uk> - 2013-06-11 01:01 -0700
        Re: Programming Style Gerry Jackson <gerry@jackson9000.fsnet.co.uk> - 2013-06-11 15:51 +0100
          Re: Programming Style rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2013-06-12 11:14 -0400
            Re: Programming Style "Elizabeth D. Rather" <erather@forth.com> - 2013-06-14 13:03 -1000
              Re: Programming Style rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2013-06-14 19:22 -0400
                Re: Programming Style "Elizabeth D. Rather" <erather@forth.com> - 2013-06-14 16:54 -1000
                Re: Programming Style rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2013-06-15 12:14 -0400
                Re: Programming Style "Elizabeth D. Rather" <erather@forth.com> - 2013-06-15 11:57 -1000
                Re: Programming Style anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) - 2013-06-17 16:12 +0000
                Re: Programming Style rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2013-06-17 23:08 -0400
        Re: Programming Style Hannu Vuolasaho <hannu.vuolasaho@nospam.tut.fi.invalid> - 2013-06-11 18:42 +0000
          Re: Programming Style "Ed" <invalid@invalid.com> - 2013-06-12 12:00 +1000
            Re: Programming Style "Elizabeth D. Rather" <erather@forth.com> - 2013-06-11 17:07 -1000
              Re: Programming Style "Ed" <invalid@invalid.com> - 2013-06-13 14:21 +1000
                Re: Programming Style "Elizabeth D. Rather" <erather@forth.com> - 2013-06-12 18:35 -1000
                Re: Programming Style "Ed" <invalid@invalid.com> - 2013-06-13 16:56 +1000
                Re: Programming Style "Elizabeth D. Rather" <erather@forth.com> - 2013-06-12 21:03 -1000
                Re: Programming Style "Ed" <invalid@invalid.com> - 2013-06-14 10:20 +1000
                Re: Programming Style "Elizabeth D. Rather" <erather@forth.com> - 2013-06-13 15:46 -1000
                Re: Programming Style "Ed" <invalid@invalid.com> - 2013-06-15 23:27 +1000
                Re: Programming Style Andrew Haley <andrew29@littlepinkcloud.invalid> - 2013-06-15 10:53 -0500
                Re: Programming Style Mark Wills <markrobertwills@yahoo.co.uk> - 2013-06-14 01:34 -0700
                Re: Programming Style anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) - 2013-06-14 12:12 +0000
                Re: Programming Style albert@spenarnc.xs4all.nl (Albert van der Horst) - 2013-06-14 15:13 +0000
                Re: Programming Style "Ed" <invalid@invalid.com> - 2013-06-17 21:25 +1000
                Re: Programming Style anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) - 2013-06-17 15:37 +0000
                Re: Programming Style Elizabeth D Rather <erather@forth.com> - 2013-06-17 08:17 -1000
                Re: Programming Style albert@spenarnc.xs4all.nl (Albert van der Horst) - 2013-06-17 19:47 +0000
                Re: Programming Style anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) - 2013-06-18 08:12 +0000
                Re: Programming Style Alex McDonald <blog@rivadpm.com> - 2013-06-17 12:59 -0700
                Re: Programming Style rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2013-06-17 23:33 -0400
                Re: Programming Style Hugh Aguilar <hughaguilar96@yahoo.com> - 2013-06-19 19:50 -0700
                Re: Programming Style Andrew Haley <andrew29@littlepinkcloud.invalid> - 2013-06-20 03:08 -0500
                Re: Programming Style Alex McDonald <blog@rivadpm.com> - 2013-06-20 01:55 -0700
                Re: Programming Style Andrew Haley <andrew29@littlepinkcloud.invalid> - 2013-06-20 05:10 -0500
                Re: Programming Style Bernd Paysan <bernd.paysan@gmx.de> - 2013-06-20 13:02 +0200
                Re: Programming Style anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) - 2013-06-20 15:40 +0000
                Re: Programming Style "Elizabeth D. Rather" <erather@forth.com> - 2013-06-20 07:21 -1000
                Re: Programming Style albert@spenarnc.xs4all.nl (Albert van der Horst) - 2013-06-20 09:50 +0000
                Re: Programming Style rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2013-06-14 18:50 -0400
                Re: Programming Style "Ed" <invalid@invalid.com> - 2013-06-16 00:31 +1000
                Re: Programming Style Andrew Haley <andrew29@littlepinkcloud.invalid> - 2013-06-15 10:59 -0500
                Re: Programming Style albert@spenarnc.xs4all.nl (Albert van der Horst) - 2013-06-13 10:48 +0000
                Re: Programming Style "Elizabeth D. Rather" <erather@forth.com> - 2013-06-13 07:44 -1000
                Re: Programming Style albert@spenarnc.xs4all.nl (Albert van der Horst) - 2013-06-15 16:31 +0000
            Re: Programming Style albert@spenarnc.xs4all.nl (Albert van der Horst) - 2013-06-12 11:10 +0000
              Re: Programming Style mhx@iae.nl (Marcel Hendrix) - 2013-06-12 20:51 +0200
            Re: Programming Style anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) - 2013-06-12 15:06 +0000
              Re: Programming Style "Ed" <invalid@invalid.com> - 2013-06-13 14:54 +1000
                Re: Programming Style "Elizabeth D. Rather" <erather@forth.com> - 2013-06-12 20:43 -1000
                Re: Programming Style anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) - 2013-06-14 12:45 +0000
          Re: Programming Style rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2013-06-14 16:39 -0400
            Re: Programming Style "Elizabeth D. Rather" <erather@forth.com> - 2013-06-14 11:37 -1000
        Re: Programming Style Hugh Aguilar <hughaguilar96@yahoo.com> - 2013-06-11 18:23 -0700
      Re: Programming Style "Elizabeth D. Rather" <erather@forth.com> - 2013-06-15 08:45 -1000

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