Re: Any practical use for Atoms?

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From	Rod Pemberton <NeedNotReplyHere@xrsevnneqk.cem>
Newsgroups	comp.lang.forth
Subject	Re: Any practical use for Atoms?
Date	Mon, 14 Nov 2016 16:39:14 -0500
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On Mon, 14 Nov 2016 08:42:57 -0800 (PST)
trans <transfire@gmail.com> wrote:

> I know this is a bit off the wall, but I've been learning Erlang this
> month. And Erlang has "atoms" which are words that just stand for
> themselves. They don't represent a variable or a function -- they
> just are. In a way they are kind of like enums, but you don't have to
> pre-assign them numbers. Clojure has something similar called
> "keyword symbols". And Ruby has them too just called "symbols". But
> they are much more useful in Erlang b/c of pattern matching.
> 
> So I started wondering, could Forth use such a construct in practice?
> Is there any value in it? Or would it be totally useless to Forth?

: NOP ;

It does nothing.  It does not represent a variable or function, or
even a constant.  It has a name.  It has a unique value too.  That's
called an XT.  As such, it would seem that it just stands for itself.
Is that what you meant?


Rod Pemberton

Thread

Any practical use for Atoms? trans <transfire@gmail.com> - 2016-11-14 08:42 -0800
  Re: Any practical use for Atoms? Andrew Haley <andrew29@littlepinkcloud.invalid> - 2016-11-14 10:48 -0600
    Re: Any practical use for Atoms? Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2016-11-14 08:51 -0800
      Re: Any practical use for Atoms? Andrew Haley <andrew29@littlepinkcloud.invalid> - 2016-11-14 12:03 -0600
        Re: Any practical use for Atoms? Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2016-11-15 22:31 -0800
          Re: Any practical use for Atoms? Andrew Haley <andrew29@littlepinkcloud.invalid> - 2016-11-16 03:01 -0600
  Re: Any practical use for Atoms? Rod Pemberton <NeedNotReplyHere@xrsevnneqk.cem> - 2016-11-14 16:39 -0500
    Re: Any practical use for Atoms? trans <transfire@gmail.com> - 2016-11-14 14:12 -0800
    Re: Any practical use for Atoms? Mark Wills <markwills1970@gmail.com> - 2016-11-15 03:16 -0800
    Re: Any practical use for Atoms? Gerry Jackson <gerry@jackson9000.fsnet.co.uk> - 2016-11-15 17:46 +0000
      Re: Any practical use for Atoms? trans <transfire@gmail.com> - 2016-11-15 21:00 -0800
        Re: Any practical use for Atoms? albert@cherry.spenarnc.xs4all.nl (Albert van der Horst) - 2016-11-16 11:55 +0100
          Re: Any practical use for Atoms? anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) - 2016-11-17 13:32 +0000
  Re: Any practical use for Atoms? albert@cherry.spenarnc.xs4all.nl (Albert van der Horst) - 2016-11-15 13:21 +0100

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