Re: Avoid treating the stack as an array [Re: "Back & Forth" is back!]

On 11/09/2024 12:03 pm, dxf wrote:

On 10/09/2024 9:26 pm, Paul Rubin wrote:

Hans Bezemer <the.beez.speaks@gmail.com> writes:

What bothers me most technologically is that parameters flow through
the stack undisturbed. You break that paradigm when using locals. With
locals you *HAVE TO* create some kind of stack frame that you have to
destroy when you exit.

>
Forth programs very frequently end up juggling parameters and other data
to and from the return stack, instead of using locals.

 
Looking at an application with 154 colon definitions, only 2 were found
to use the return stack for temporary storage.  Even I was surprised :)

From the same app:

dup    54
drop   29
swap   22
over   16
2drop   9
rot     8
2dup    3

r      2

r>      2
2swap   1
2nip    1
locals  0

The easiest stack operations (DUP DROP) account for most.  SWAP averaged
1 in 7 definitions.  OVER 1 in 9.  Is 'stack juggling' a problem in forth?
It doesn't appear to be.