Re: Type checking (was: The strengths of FORTH)

On Apr 11, 8:02 am, m_l_g3 <m_l...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> > > By the way, what does 1+ do for a string?

> > StrongForth does not have a data type for counted strings. In fact,
there
> > are no words that directly operate with counted strings. Strings are
always
> > represented in the address-and-count format, which has the data type
> > representation CDATA -> CHARACTER UNSIGNED.

> I meant not counter strings, but the (addr, len) pair. I see, it is
> just a pair of values, not a data type.

Well, it is data with associated primitive operations, so it *is* an
abstract data type. However, since the structure of the data is
specified in terms of other abstract data types (character address and
unsigned integer), it is a second order data type rather than a first
order data type.

If the goal is strong typing, then to strongly type ``TYPE'',
``COMPARE'' and ``/STRING'', it has to be present in the type
system ... as a second order type, then as above, that is best if its
in terms of a data type that refers to the component data types.