Problem

In order to do this a number of alterations to the main document are required.

Proposal

1. Replace the first three paragraphs of section 1.4.2 "Obsolescent features", listing the obsolescent words:

   This Standard adopts certain words and practices that cause some previously used words and practices to become obsolescent. Although retained here because of their widespread use, their use in new implementations or new programs is discouraged, because they may be withdrawn from future revisions of the Standard.

   This Standard designates the following words as obsolescent:

   6.2.0060	#TIB		15.6.2.1580	FORGET		6.2.2240	SPAN
   6.2.0970	CONVERT		6.2.2040	QUERY		6.2.2290	TIB
   6.2.1390	EXPECT

   with:

   This Standard adopts certain words and practices that cause some previously used words and practices to become obsolescent. Their use in new implementations or new programs is discouraged, as they may be withdrawn from future revisions of the Standard.

   This Standard designates no words as obsolescent.

2. Remove reference to EXPECT and CONVERT from the Documentation requirements:

   4.1.1 Implementation-defined options:

   character editing of ACCEPT and EXPECT;

   display after input terminates in ACCEPT and EXPECT;

   4.1.2 Ambiguous conditions

   producing a result out of range, e.g., multiplication (using *) results in a value too big to be represented by a single-cell integer (*, */, */MOD, >NUMBER, FM/MOD, SM/REM, UM/MOD, CONVERT, M*/);

   4.2.1 Environmental dependencies

   depending on the presence or absence of non-graphic characters in a received string (ACCEPT, EXPECT);

3. CORE EXT Wordset

   6.1.2216 SOURCE

   Remove ", declaring TIB and #TIB obsolescent" from the end of the first paragraph, and the following text from the rationale:

   SOURCE in this form exists in F83, polyFORTH, LMI's Forths and others. In conventional systems it is equivalent to the phrase

   BLK @ IF BLK @ BLOCK 1024 ELSE TIB #TIB @ THEN

   6.1.2450 WORD

   Remove the sentence "A space, not included in the length, follows the string" from the second paragraph and the note in the definition.

   Remove the second paragraph from the rationale:

   As a concession to the obsolesecent word CONVERT, Forth94 required an implementation to put a space after the string placed by WORD. This standard neither requires nor prohibits such a space.

   6.2.0060 #TIB

   Remove the definition and rationale.

   6.2.0695 ACCEPT

   Remove reference to EXPECT from the first paragraph, and the following paragraphs from the rationale:

   ACCEPT and EXPECT perform similar functions. ACCEPT is recommended for new programs, and future use of EXPECT is discouraged.

   As in previous standards, EXPECT returns the input string immediately after the requested number of characters are entered, as well as when a line terminator is received. The "automatic termination after specified count of characters have been entered" behavior is widely considered undesirable because the user "loses control" of the input editing process at a potentially unknown time (the user does not necessarily know how many characters were requested from EXPECT). Thus EXPECT and SPAN have been made obsolescent and exist in the Standard only as a concession to existing implementations. If EXPECT exists in a Standard System it must have the "automatic termination" behavior.

   ACCEPT does not have the "automatic termination" behavior of EXPECT. However, because external system hardware and software may perform the ACCEPT function, when a line terminator is received the action of the cursor, and therefore the display, is implementation-defined. It is recommended that the cursor remain immediately following the entered text after a line terminator is received.

   6.2.0970 CONVERT

   Remove the definition and rationale.

   6.2.1390 EXPECT

   Remove the definition and rationale.

   6.2.2040 QUERY

   Remove the definition and rationale.

   6.2.2125 REFILL

   Remove the reference to QUERY in the rationale leaving:

   REFILL is designed to behave reasonably for all possible input sources. If the input source is coming from the user REFILL could still return a false value if, for instance, a communication channel closes so that the system knows that no more input will be available.

   6.2.2240 SPAN

   Remove the definition, there is no rationale.

   6.2.2290 TIB

   Remove the definition and rationale.

4. TOOLS EXT Wordset

   15.6.2.1580 FORGET

   Remove the following note from the end of the third paragraph:

   Note: This word is obsolescent and is included as a concession to existing implementations.

   A.15.6.2.1580 FORGET

   Replace the existing rationale:

   Typical use:

   ... FORGET name ...

   FORGET assumes that all the information needed to restore the dictionary to its previous state is inferable somehow from the forgotten word. While this may be true in simple linear dictionary models, it is difficult to implement in other Forth systems; e.g., those with multiple address spaces. For example, if Forth is embedded in ROM, how does FORGET know how much RAM to recover when an array is forgotten? A general and preferred solution is provided by MARKER.

   with the text:

   Typical use:

   ... FORGET name ...

   FORGET tries to infer information about the previous dictionary state from the forgotten word, which is not always possible. In consequence, FORGET is guaranteed to restore the state of name space, but not necessarily the state of dictionary.

   For example,

   ALIGN HERE 100 CELLS ALLOT CONSTANT mybuffer
   FORGET mybuffer
         

   in this case the 100 reserved cells are a part of the buffer, but FORGET can not infer this. A solution to the restoration of the dictionary state is provided by MARKER.

   Nevertheless, FORGET is a useful tool for interactive sessions, because it does not require creation of a marker in advance. An example session may look like following:

   : foo ... foo ... ( buggy redefinition) ;
   \ finding out the bug
   FORGET foo
   : foo ... foo ... ( bug fixed) ;
   \ checking that it works
   \ copying the definition of foo into a file
         

   It should be noted that such sessions are practical only in environments that support input history (often persistent) and copy/paste to/from the console.

5. Remove the reference to #TIB and TIB from the first sentence of the "Data space" rationale (A.3.3.3).
6. Remove the reference to CONVERT in the rationale for the Core extension words (A.6.2):

   Words that are being deprecated in favour of new words introduced to solve specific problems (e.g., CONVERT).

7. Add the following to Annex D:

   D.7 ANS Forth '94

   D.7.1 Removed Definitions

   This standard removes six words that were marked 'obsolescent' in the ANS Forth '94 document. These are:

   6.2.0060	#TIB		6.2.1390	EXPECT		6.2.2240	SPAN
   6.2.0970	CONVERT		6.2.2040	QUERY		6.2.2290	TIB

   Reuse of these names is strongly discouraged.

Remarks

The new rationale for FORGET is taken from Michael Gassanenko's "un-obsolete FORGET".