Re: The Promise of Forth

"William James" <w_a_x_man@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message 
news:b8aa71fb-ae8f-4158-b6e2-88779ca81bbe@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> As simple as your BOX4?
>
> Or as simple as one approach using locals:
>
> : from_corner { x y  xx yy -- }
>  x y  xx y line
>  x y  x yy line ;
>
> : box { x y  xx yy -- }
>  x y  xx yy  from_corner
>  xx yy  x y  from_corner ;

Factoring seems to be part of the 'art' of Forth and is not something that

is well explained (in a how-to sense) anywhere I have found so far. I'm
sure 
I haven't yet mastered this art and certainly appreciate anything by way
of 
enlightenment.

Your example is undoubtedly more readable than BOX4 , and I presume you
have 
unintentionally omitted the LOCALS| declarations . This clearly
demonstrates 
the value of the locals word set but sometimes we are constrained. 
Unfortunately, the Forth I'm using (SwiftX for the TI msp430) apparently 
doesn't include the optional ANSI locals word set. I can envision a
variant 
using VARIABLE declarations for  x, y, xx, and xy but that would
permanantly 
allocate scarce (in my application ) RAM.  Would you care to venture a
well 
factored version of BOX4 that doesn't use locals or variables but to which

you wouldn't apply the harsh criticism you had for BOX4?

Bob Miller