I guess at some point a language reaches a tipping point where changes for the better (or simpler) actually cost more than they're worth. Maybe there's another way around this problem though. Things that break old code are: 1. Vocab renaming, 2. Moving a word from one vocab to another, 3. Removing a word, 4. Changing how a word works (including its stack effect), 5. Coming up with a better or simpler way of doing something.
When these things are done we could add a code description of the change that was made, and run a script over the old code to update it to the new way of Factoring. This should work for all but #5. This sort of feature could be done in Factor if it can read a .factor file, modify the words in the vocab, then write over the original .factor file without losing the original formatting, commenting, etc. Is this possible yet? With most Factor features implemented as libraries, this kind of code upgrade system could mean that Factor never has to freeze its API, and we can keep refactoring forever :) Alex PS. Doug, those changes to Jamshred look good to me, and I won't personally miss range-max, range-min et al. 2009/5/26 Chris Double <chris.dou...@double.co.nz> > On 5/26/09, Doug Coleman <doug.cole...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > Nothing else uses these words. How does that look? > > > > You mean nothing in the Factor repository uses these words. There's a > whole bunch of Factor code not in the repository that is affected by > word renamings, etc. Please take this into account when you consider > changes. > > Chris. > -- > http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Register Now for Creativity and Technology (CaT), June 3rd, NYC. CaT > is a gathering of tech-side developers & brand creativity professionals. > Meet > the minds behind Google Creative Lab, Visual Complexity, Processing, & > iPhoneDevCamp asthey present alongside digital heavyweights like Barbarian > Group, R/GA, & Big Spaceship. http://www.creativitycat.com > _______________________________________________ > Factor-talk mailing list > Factor-talk@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/factor-talk >
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