AltME groups: search

Graham, the file management functions are still on the list to be 
included. I just didn't have the time for 2.7.7, so they'll be in 
2.7.8.

that only works when you use the types within the argument list... 
when you are creating things and passing them over to functions, 
you must always pass the type as well as the data.

you are only working against the argument list.  I use args outside 
of the commands in other functions which manipulate rebol values.

Regarding the "comparison is meaningless", or "SORT doesn't have 
that luxury though, because it is designed to not fail" philosophical 
arguments. They, in fact, are not valid at all. The facts are different.


* For large lists which are frequently searched it *is* useful to 
have them sorted. 

** The reason is, that it is much easier to perform searches in a 
sorted list, than in an unsorted list.

** The "meaning" of the sort order is to facilitate searches, no 
other meaning is needed. (it is like the zero case, the meaning of 
zero is to facilitate the positional representations of numbers, 
no other "meaning" is needed)

* The whole "sorted list business" needs comparison functions (for 
searching, etc.)


The above "meaning" is one meaning comparisons do have. It suffices 
to prove, that comparisons are not "meaningless". (for that it would 
be absolutely necessary, that we can find no meaning at all)

Thanks for the update, including the great docs Ladislav. I will 
try to give it more thought, and incorporate the new version in my 
work. In the meantime, here are some quick comments.


Have a naming convention for scripts that define include directives. 
e.g. %localize.r could be %#localize.r or %incl-directive-localize.r. 
Short is good, but special characters may affect portability.


If a directive doesn't require per-script or environment specific 
changes, like #comment, make it standard. And the way you designed 
#localize is very nice, in that it gives you control. Do you have 
helper functions for updating 'translate-list? I might call it translation-list, 
since 'translate sounds like an action.

Brian, aha, "Assert": another one of the newer, non-dictionary functions. 
Thanks for pointing those out to me the other day. I now have a list.

ASSERT and ASSERT/type don't have a way to test the number and type 
compatibility of function arguments for first-class functions. It 
might be worth looking into a way to check that, perhaps as an extension 
of ASSERT, which could be ported to R3 as well. ASSERT is also high 
on the list of functions to backport to R2 as a native function.

Looking at the server.exe content, I see the zmq_err0 in the imported 
functions list. So it seems to be corrupted inside the executable.

I was thinking about struct parameters to functions. If C doesn't 
allow struct parameters and return values, only struct references 
or pointers, then Red should follow that model when declaring functions 
with the cdecl calling convention, and similar restrictions for stdcall, 
fastcall, etc. Then when we need to support other calling conventions 
that do support passing actual structs as parameters, we can just 
add to the list (pascal or Delphi, for instance).

So, how about a way to always keep a list of external used functions? 
This make it simpler to make Red totally stand-alone later. The hard 
part to get rid of all the lics & OS stuff is, that you have to find 
out, which functions you have to "clone".

I just thought of another way to help. Make a list of REBOL functions 
missing. There are many missing from %rebol.w

And there already is a wiki started with differences from REBOL at:
https://github.com/Geomol/World/wiki/Differences-from-REBOL

I don't have time to write it. But everybody can write in that wiki.

Now, go try World out. And remember to have fun!