touch up quotation documentation

db4
Joe Groff 2009-10-31 16:40:10 -05:00
parent 9163e4e552
commit 2f90b13160
2 changed files with 11 additions and 12 deletions

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@ -3,29 +3,28 @@ vectors kernel combinators ;
IN: quotations IN: quotations
ARTICLE: "quotations" "Quotations" ARTICLE: "quotations" "Quotations"
"Conceptually, a quotation is an anonymous function (a value denoting a snippet of code) which can be passed around and called." "A quotation is an anonymous function (a value denoting a snippet of code) which can be used as a value and called. Quotations are delimited by square brackets (" { $snippet "[ ]" } "); see " { $link "syntax-quots" } " for details on their syntax."
$nl $nl
"Concretely, a quotation is an immutable sequence of objects, some of which may be words, together with a block of machine code which may be executed to achieve the effect of evaluating the quotation. The machine code is generated by a fast non-optimizing quotation compiler which is always running and is transparent to the developer." "Quotations form a class of objects:"
$nl
"Quotations form a class of objects, however in most cases, methods should dispatch on " { $link callable } " instead, so that " { $link curry } " and " { $link compose } " values can participate."
{ $subsections { $subsections
quotation quotation
quotation? quotation?
} }
"Quotations evaluate sequentially from beginning to end. Literals are pushed on the stack and words are executed. Details can be found in " { $link "evaluator" } "." "A more general class is provided for methods to dispatch on that includes quotations, " { $link curry } ", and " { $link compose } " objects:"
$nl { $subsections
"Quotation literal syntax is documented in " { $link "syntax-quots" } "." callable
$nl }
"Quotations evaluate sequentially from beginning to end. Literals are pushed on the stack and words are executed. Details can be found in " { $link "evaluator" } ". Words can be placed in wrappers to suppress execution:"
{ $subsections "wrappers" }
"Quotations implement the " { $link "sequence-protocol" } ", and existing sequences can be converted into quotations:" "Quotations implement the " { $link "sequence-protocol" } ", and existing sequences can be converted into quotations:"
{ $subsections { $subsections
>quotation >quotation
1quotation 1quotation
} }
"Wrappers:" "Although quotations can be treated as sequences, the compiler will be unable to reason about quotations manipulated as sequences at runtime. " { $link "compositional-combinators" } " are provided for runtime partial application and composition of quotations." ;
{ $subsections "wrappers" } ;
ARTICLE: "wrappers" "Wrappers" ARTICLE: "wrappers" "Wrappers"
"Wrappers are used to push words on the data stack; they evaluate to the object being wrapped:" "Wrappers evaluate to the object being wrapped when encountered in code. They are are used to suppress the execution of " { $link "words" } " so that they can be used as values."
{ $subsections { $subsections
wrapper wrapper
literalize literalize

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@ -106,7 +106,7 @@ ARTICLE: "syntax-numbers" "Number syntax"
} ; } ;
ARTICLE: "syntax-words" "Word syntax" ARTICLE: "syntax-words" "Word syntax"
"A word occurring inside a quotation is executed when the quotation is called. Sometimes a word needs to be pushed on the data stack instead. The canonical use-case for this is passing the word to the " { $link execute } " combinator, or alternatively, reflectively accessing word properties (" { $link "word-props" } ")." "A word occurring inside a quotation is executed when the quotation is called. Sometimes a word needs to be pushed on the data stack instead. The canonical use case for this is passing the word to the " { $link execute } " combinator, or alternatively, reflectively accessing word properties (" { $link "word-props" } ")."
{ $subsections { $subsections
POSTPONE: \ POSTPONE: \
POSTPONE: POSTPONE: POSTPONE: POSTPONE: