Type checking (was: The strengths of FORTH)

"dkelvey@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
" <dkelvey@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> writes:
> One of the complaints I see often is the lack
>of type checking.
> I can't recall when I had an error in my code
>related to incorrect use of type. Still, it is
>considered a major problem with Forth?

Depends on whom you ask.  Outside the Forth community, there are two
religions:

- Those who believe in static type checking

- and those who detest it.

I am pretty sure that the believers consider the lack of static type
checking a problem in Forth.

Now, looking at the Forth community, there are experiments with static
type checking (StrongForth and some research projects) and with
dynamic type checking (e.g., Factor).  However, it seems that those in
the Forth community who have a problem with the lack of type checking
are a small minority, otherwise we see more such experiments
(especially since StrongForth is only a 16-bit DOS system) and we
would have seen such experiments earlier.

- anton
-- 
M. Anton Ertl  http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/anton/home.html
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