bolo@cat.CS.WISC.EDU (Joe Burger) (08/02/90)
I've been following the ans-forth discussion, but was wondering
about ....
What provisions does ans-forth provide for different length stack data
types?
I know about cell/cells/cell+, ... for making the "size" of a
normal-length "cell" portable, but what about the different
number types?
For example, forth-83 has single and double length
numbers, corresponding to 16 and 32 bit lengths
on most 8bit forths.
As another example, Mitch Bradley has a "type" system which
explicitly specifies the number of bits that a type has,
and makes a distinction between a double number which just
2 normal sized stack entries, and a 32 bit arithmetic quantity
known as a long. There are words to store and fetch quantities
of each size, and mixed-mode words for stack manipulations
of different sized objects (ex: nlswap to swap normal and a
long stack item ( n l -- l n).
So, what approach does ans-forth take?
thanks
bolo ... aka Joe Burger University of Wisconsin-Madison Computer Systems Lab
internet: bolo@cs.wisc.edu uucp: {backbone}!uwvax!bolo
bolo ... aka Joe Burger University of Wisconsin-Madison Computer Systems Lab
internet: bolo@cs.wisc.edu uucp: {backbone}!uwvax!bolo