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From: mhx@iae.nl (Marcel Hendrix)
Subject: Re: revisiting a prgramming problem
Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth
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Date: Sat, 25 Oct 2014 13:28:53 +0200
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m.a.m.hendrix@tue.nl writes Re: The magical number seven (was: Tiny regular expressions code)
[..]
>> >Anton Ertl <anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at> wrote:
[..]
>> An informal examination of one of Moore's applications shows that he
>> averages seven references, including both words and numbers, per
>> definition.

> I'll have a look in 'Footsteps in an empty valley' and/or the Weasel 
> manual (full kernel), tonight. This should be easy to (dis)prove.

'Footsteps in an empty valley'

-DIGIT \ 27 words
NUMBER \ 53 words
WORD   \ 48 words
QUIT   \ 14 words
BAUD   \ 17 words
SPACES \ 13 words 
M/MOD  \ 10 words
FILL   \ 15 words
SCAN   \ 12 words
THRU   \ 12 words
]      \ 46 words
@      \ 11 words ( optimized)

( here I stopped )

I can't find any trace of words that are obviously factored out of larger
definitions. All words perform a definite function.
Not all words have a stack picture. No words have empty stack pictures. Only
the data stack is commented, input stream and rack are not.

I counted ':', "name" and ';' as words.

The listing I used for counting was the  metacompiler for the NOVIX.
I didn't count the very long optimizer words (50 .. 72 words, 
unfactored :-), and also not artefacts of metacompiling like : @ @ ; .

-marcel