EBERBERS@YUBGEF51.BITNET (____ Zarko Berberski ____) (01/07/91)
>>> Standalone applications... There is some confusion here... The most commom >>> application in Forth *IS* Standalone, i.e., you turn on your computer, load >>> Forth, load the application, and use it... > >> This is almost EXACT definition of appplication that is NOT >> stand-alone i.e. it can't be executed without some kind of intermediary ;-) > ^^^^^^^^^^^^ > >And what is the intermediary (in this case)? Forth? I agree with your >definition of what is not stand-alone, but I can't see where my definition >match with yours... It doesn't. I merely pointed to the contadiction in your reasoning since you have used the dedinition of not-stand-alone-application as an example that forth application is standalone. So, since you agree with definition I hope you understand the contradiction - you have actually proved that forth application is not stand-alone (quite oposite from what you have tried to prove) :-) >And what is the intermediary (in this case)? Forth? Exactly ! Is the intermediary that you specified the user? No! The intermediary certainly not alive :-) Quite generaly , intermediary is a program that is not a part of standard system instalation and application can't work without it. So, whether application is or is not standalone depends sometimes on the particular system in question. example: Program with GUI (Graphic User Interface) based on GEM in standalone on Atari ST but is not on IBM PC. But, Ventura has all important parts of GEM built-in so it is standalone but also quite space consuming. Things are not always so clear. Right now you still can't call application that needs X-Windows standalone but if you have NeXT of SUN or some HP workstation on any other UNIX workstation than it is standalone since X-Windows is part of stadard system for UNIX workstations. On the other side, if you devel op a shared library for NeXT that gives you special GUI on top of X-Windows than your program is not standalone. example: OSF/Motif In theory, you can always convert application to standalone by linking intermediers together and/or adding sme logic that will do load/instalation but you are always ending up with a monster. If you are going to sell an applicatin to 32Mby UNIX users it might be OK but if you are in small machines market than it is a huge problem unless you are producing applications that are huge anyway (CAD, DTP etc.). So, we can play with terminology, but facts remain intact - users like standalone applications, software publishers like standalone applications and forth applications are not standalone until somebody produces standalone computer (another interesting concept - standalone computer :-) wiht forth-processor and manages to sell it in mega quantities. <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< <<>> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> <<<< Zarko Berberski >>>> <<<< EBERBERS@YUBGEF51.bitnet >>>> <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< <<>> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>