In article <87le18rurj.fsf@nightsong.com>,   
   Paul Rubin   wrote:   
   >albert@spenarnc.xs4all.nl writes:   
   >> Numbers (also denotations, such as strings)  must be smart.   
   >   
   >I've thought of having non-smart numbers in a small Forth.  Instead of   
   >123 you would say # 123 or something similar, where # is a parsing word   
   >that emits LIT and the number.  I remember that the eForth metacompiler   
   >does something like that, to handle the case where the host and target   
   >processors have differing number representations (e.g. word sizes).   
      
   I don't think that would count as non-smart numbers.   
   A long time ago I demonstrated handling denotations (numbers)   
   in INTERPRET . Reminder denotations are constant and the same   
   in either mode.   
   It requires that there is a separate compilation stack.   
      
   As soon as INTERPRET detects that a word (obviously immediate)   
   leaves something on the stack, and it is in compilation state,   
   it compiles one or more literals.   
   That is in the context of PREFIXes. 0x is a prefix immediate.   
   0x1234 gets control and generates hex 1234 . INTERPRET takes   
   cares of the rest.   
   Bottom line, that is the single location in the whole Forth   
   where STATE is inspected.   
      
   In ciforth I don't go that far, but all denotations ends in a   
   call to LITERAL/DLITERAL which comes close.   
      
   Groetjes Albert   
      
   >   
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