Path: csiph.com!eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth
Subject: Re: Given a string, create word with that name (in ANS Forth)?
Date: Sat, 24 Sep 2016 14:29:59 -0700
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
Lines: 17
Message-ID: <87k2e19eaw.fsf@jester.gateway.pace.com>
References: <41b6c38e-a2c5-43f9-965b-78f0afdf6ebe@googlegroups.com> <2016Sep21.142608@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at> <ZPKdnVn_m9TxmX7KnZ2dnUU7-WvNnZ2d@supernews.com> <2016Sep22.094048@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at> <ns0qrl$m96$1@dont-email.me> <8660pnhfbd.fsf@molnjunk.nocrew.org> <ns2s5d$rnu$1@dont-email.me> <861t0bgcat.fsf@molnjunk.nocrew.org> <Tr2dnT8q6sFm0HjKnZ2dnUU7-cGdnZ2d@supernews.com> <2016Sep23.182601@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at> <5IOdnRy0kb7IoHvKnZ2dnUU7-afNnZ2d@supernews.com> <2016Sep24.121339@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at> <svqdnYT5RPmWAHvKnZ2dnUU7-c3NnZ2d@supernews.com> <86twd5f9et.fsf@molnjunk.nocrew.org> <9e2dncJAOdaoRXvKnZ2dnUU7-I_NnZ2d@supernews.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain
Injection-Info: mx02.eternal-september.org; posting-host="2aed369a7b4699bde3e169ff4d831123"; logging-data="30026"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org";	posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1/eh8SnFZ/fnsJRgmCBYIHA"
User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/24.3 (gnu/linux)
Cancel-Lock: sha1:JqKhC3C8lvk9PVedGGhCWGhHGZo= sha1:MOYwJcuPqUsyh44GTMLFJN1C+OI=
Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.forth:51250

"Elizabeth D. Rather" <erather@forth.com> writes:
>> "mapping" or "associative array" or something.
> The thing is, each of those application areas has its own needs. The
> dictionary is, itself, an application with certain needs, and
> complicating the dictionary to make a general-purpose facility will
> not benefit either Forth or any of those uses.

Associative tables have shown themselves to be a very useful datatype in
many other languages, and the implementation details are usually not
that important.  Forth uses one to implement dictionaries/wordlists, but
its interface is very restricted.  And if the application implements its
own, but that means there are now two different implementations in the
Forth running the app.

If a general purpose table had been available from the beginning, the
Forth dictionary would be able to use it, and the user app could use it
too.