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From: Julian Fondren <ayrnieu@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth
Subject: Re: multi-threading in Forth?
Date: Sun, 07 Aug 2011 01:43:54 -0500
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Andrew Haley <andrew29@littlepinkcloud.invalid> writes:

>
> What is CALL ?
>

  : call >r ;

m_l_g3 calls it ENTER

> They're both hard to understand and maintain.  What's wrong with
>
>    -too-small if  -not-forth if  type space  then then
>
> ?  Golly, even a Forth beginner could understand what that does .  We
> can't have that!  :-)
>

  : -too-small ( c-addr u -- c-addr u 0 | -1 )
    ... ;

  : -too-small ( c-addr u -- c-addr u f )
    ... ;

Neither word follows the "consume all inputs" norm, but compared to what
I went with...

> Yes.  Conventional is good.  The maintenance programmer's time is
> valuable.  Think about it for a moment: on first sight, how long would
> it take the reader to figure out what these programs do?  Remember,
> you're writing code to be read.
>
> There's an old saying that appears in many forms, one of which is
> "Don't use a ten dollar word when a nickel one will do."  This is good
> advice when writing English, and terrific advice when programming.
> People learning English often use heavyweight synonyms and complex
> structures they've learned.  That's good while learning, but it's also
> a sure sign of someone not very fluent with the language.
>
> A maintenance programmer has a reasonable expectation that a
> heavyweight technique will only be used when demanded by a heavyweight
> problem.  When they find otherwise there's a kind of cognitive
> dissonance (talk about 10-dollar words!) that forces a break in
> concentration.  It also forces them to step away from the problem they
> were trying to solve in order to learn how your custom control
> structures work.
>
> This is not general advice against custom control structures, which
> are one of Forth's strengths.  But it's important to realize that,
> while they can simplify code and make it more readable, there is a
> cost.  A wise programmer balances costs and benefits, and uses
> powerful techniques sparingly.

Thanks for this :-) The middle paragraphs are persuasive enough for me.

> Andrew.