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From: Julian Fondren <ayrnieu@gmail.com>
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Subject: Re: Forth Performance Question
Date: Fri, 12 Aug 2011 02:10:36 -0500
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"Rod Pemberton" <do_not_have@noavailemail.cmm> writes:

> "Elizabeth D. Rather" <erather@forth.com> wrote in message
> news:OM2dnfp9muWFzNnTnZ2dnUVZ_sadnZ2d@supernews.com...
>> [...]
>> Everything else involved in learning Forth
>> consists of developing a vocabulary of words, for which you must
>> remember what arguments they take and what results they return.
>>
>
> "for which you must remember ..."  That's a serious enough deficiency that
> one should adopt C.  Those are documented for us ...
>
> If I haven't used a C function somewhat recently, I have to look up it's
> arguments.  That's after many years of C, and with an excellent memory.
> You're telling me that Forth requires you remember all the arguments to all
> the functions you use?  How do you use a larger library?  I'm assuming you
> must have a reference manual, ANSI spec, book, or personal notes that
> you use to keep track of the parameters for larger sets of Forth words.
>
>
> Rod Pemberton

I'll interpret this as a roundabout way of asking "hey, how do Forth
programmers look up the usage of a word?"  As a slap isn't an option.

1. LOCATE <word> and then EDIT , to first get the stack comment and then
   pull up the file in which a word is defined, for context.

2. dpANS, reference manual, library documentation, etc.

3. Editor extensions to perform #1 or #2 on a word.

4. System environment extensions (e.g., right-clicking on a selected
   word) to perform #1 or #2.

So, nothing special.  Although LOCATE EDIT is a godly combo.