FORTH and Hypercard

[J. Landman Gay]

Stephen Barncard wrote:

> I also liked a feature of Hypercard that was like forth - you could 
> redefine and intercept a lower level handler using the same name. I 
> guess it was a design decision to not allow that in Transcript.... but why?

Speed. Raney wouldn't put it in, and now that I'm used to it, I agree 
with his decision (though I argued with him about it at first.) In order 
to override a built-in token with a handler of the same name, all 
commands would have to pass through the message hierarchy. As it is now, 
they go directly to the engine which is one of the reasons that Rev is 
so fast.

-- 
Jacqueline Landman Gay         |     jacque at hyperactivesw.com
HyperActive Software           |     http://www.hyperactivesw.com