Re: "The Best Programming Language for the End of the World"

On 29/04/2025 7:32 pm, albert@spenarnc.xs4all.nl wrote:

In article <df01f20a7963efffe9f2b2f71a2526b06702d5a3@i2pn2.org>,
dxf  <dxforth@gmail.com> wrote:

On 28/04/2025 8:39 pm, Hans Bezemer wrote:

On 28-04-2025 11:22, dxf wrote:

On 27/04/2025 8:28 pm, Hans Bezemer wrote:

...
Just a shame the very basics are missing. The only thing holding

Forth back is the refusal to abstract strings. Wanna make it a counted
string with a cell count? Do it. Wanna keep on doing counted strings? Do
it. Wanna do ASCIIZ strings? No problem.

>
But aren't string primitives a la ANS-Forth the key to flexibility? 

I've used

the concatenation primitive  +STRING ( a u a2 u2 -- a2 u+u2 ) 

countless times.

>
: ZPLACE ( c-addr u c-addr2 -- )  zcount +string + 0 swap c! ;
>
: ZAPPEND ( c-addr u c-addr2 -- )  zcount + zplace ;

>
>
The problem is: it's defined nowhere. Not in Wil Baden Toolbelt, not

in ANS Forth, Forth 2012 -
>
+STRING was defined in the Open Terminal Architecture spec - a joint project
by Forth Inc and MPE circa 2000.
>
+STRING                                                    plus-string
>
( c-addr1 len1 c-addr2 len2 - c-addr2 len3 )
>
Append the string at c-addr1, for len1 bytes, to the end of the string
at c-addr2, for len2 bytes.  Return the beginning of the destination
string (c-addr2) and the sum of the two lengths (len3).  It is the
programmer's responsibility to ensure that there is room at the end of
the destination string to hold both strings.
>
Why it never made it into their forth offerings I don't know - perhaps
because the project was moth-balled?

 
It is inferior to a $! $@ $+! scheme.
A stored string must remember its length.

Not if it's a basic move ...

: >PAD ( a u -- a2 u )  pad 0 +string ;

: +EXT  ( a1 u1 a2 u2 -- a3 u3 )
  2over /ext if 2drop end  3 min  s" ."  2rot -trailing
  (pfsiz-5) min  zbuf @ 1+ 0 +string  +string  +string ;