Re: [stack] sweetening concatenative syntax

On Mar 5, 2008, at 3:14 PM, John Nowak wrote:

> I think how factorable a language is primarily depends on its
> usefulness in building abstractions rather than any particular syntax.
> Languages with first class functions offer factorability that language
> like Forth don't offer. Haskell's type classes over a level of safe
> and structured factorability that's inaccessible to Joy. ML's functors
> offer a means of factoring I often miss when using Haskell. Types
> offer a way of verifying my abstractions in a way I miss when using
> Scheme. Scheme offers macros as a means of factoring that I miss when
> using Haskell. Et cetera.

I forgot an obvious one: Joy's stack-based nature, which makes it  
possible to return multiple values from a function and then easily  
consume them in another, opens up many possibilities for factoring  
that I often miss when using other languages.

- John