[PicForth] Re: Data table usage and general error tracing ?

[Samuel Tardieu]

>>>>> "Chris" == easlab  <easlab at absamail.co.za> writes:

> OK, more smart optimising .

No, your comment is wrong: table does not use the TOS and does not
store the values on the stack. It stores them in RAM, but not on the
stack.

> I can't see how to do eg: foobar[1] -> foobar[2]

You can't. Tables are read-only (even those stored in RAM). It is of
course possible to write a new word (for example table!) that would do
that, but I haven't had any need for it yet.

> IMO, inductive (by examples) is not a substitute for a proper syntax
> definition eg. of the 'native' words.

The proper syntax definition is used in the manual. The example only
helps people to understand the syntax. I personally do not like
examples in technical manuals, but I know many people do.

> I belong to those just wishing to find a better than assembly way of
> programing pics, and am not prepared to allocate much resources to
> researching linux nor forth.

> It may be usefull to now know what '2>' means, but if potential
> picforth users have to make such research, they will just rather
> abort.

As part as your contribution to the PicForth community, you could for
example add an entry in the PicForth wiki
(http://wiki.enst.fr/bin/view/Picforth) with what you learned.

>  What is the current situation - will the 'table facility' be
> available ?

It is. I thought the CHANGES file was clear enough:

| * Changes since PicForth 0.22
| 
|   + "table", "ftable", "eetable", "table>" and "end-table" allow to create
|     respectively RAM, flash or EEPROM tables.
| 
| * Changes since PicForth 0.21
| 
|   + The words "table" and "tc:" have been removed as they
|     were inefficient and useless in their current form.                     

Since I release PicForth in sequential version numbers, 0.23 is more
recent than 0.23. The word "table" has disappeared between 0.21 and
0.22, and has reappeared in another form between 0.22 and 0.23.

  Sam
-- 
Samuel Tardieu -- sam at rfc1149.net -- http://www.rfc1149.net/sam