Path: news.eternal-september.org!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.quux.org!news.nk.ca!rocksolid2!i2pn2.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: mhx@iae.nl (mhx)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth
Subject: Re: Why dial-a-standard is not a thing in Forth
Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2025 17:25:29 +0000
Organization: novaBBS
Message-ID: <7e457d7806c81fb9895256627c045aa1@www.novabbs.com>
References: <87bjtn2hct.fsf@gmail.com> <vsbtst$1vdsj$1@dont-email.me> <908575911ef8d6ba989deee854aa33cecc39ab9a@i2pn2.org> <nnd$7cd5eca1$455e887d@ea22aa12ceb9f46f> <nnd$1ba37e21$24b18a78@0330417e6d34621d> <nnd$321de9bd$662e8edd@b5507bbc6e704cf6>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Injection-Info: i2pn2.org;
	logging-data="2561850"; mail-complaints-to="usenet@i2pn2.org";
	posting-account="J+nubxJRM7ncpF4l6KLO+OONWmFAYJHVJegfwQXJ8vc";
User-Agent: Rocksolid Light
X-Rslight-Posting-User: 4e0dc1fdad1ead10b39e7eb5db19bf73d73e3ab3
X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 4.0.0
X-Rslight-Site: $2y$10$o785ECcy7UZZ9QGWL6G.eupUekdSQwJXlQGuev7Kd8x3nJxksdAmq

> Although it's wonderful to list in detail what might have caused the
> error - and how to fix it - sometimes all you need is a clue to
> hang a picture on.

Well, my life would be quite miserable if iForth did not give
me an error message, a stack-trace, and the file + line-number
where the error occurred. I know quite well how to fix errors,
the problem is to first find where they are (in a 10,000 line
program) so that I can check Git for my changes and the
surrounding text for 'documentation' on things I changed
6 months ago.

('Documentation' is in many cases just this programmer's
description of how he hopes his code works and never
afterwards updated to reality.)

Once the error is found, I break out my trusty ^^ tool to set a
printing break-point (with extra code to give variable and
pointer information, or to skip breaking until the umpteenth
iteration or some other computable event).

In very difficult cases I attach a C debugging environment to
trace memory overwrites, but in almost all other situations
Forth is *much* easier for debugging. C debuggers are getting
better though, they are able to evaluate sizable pieces of code
interactively nowadays but no 'on-the-spot' macros or accurate
and immediate on-the-spot re-compiles yet.

-marcel