APPEND vs +PLACE

description:

APPEND / +PLACE

( str-ptr str-len dst-bstring-ptr -- )

Append the stringspan to the counted string. This word has
the same synopsis as PLACE which does build a counted string
from the stringspan at the destination

On 12-Aug-2001, Guido Draheim did ask which
name would be better, and the most prominent answer came
from Neil Bawd which does slightly recommend to use +PLACE
instead of the old (and more common) APPEND.

Neil Bawd wrote:
>In 1983 I introduced PLACE into F83 as the inverse of COUNT:
>PLACE is to COUNT as ! is to @. From this pattern came +PLACE
>and C+PLACE: +PLACE is to PLACE as +! is to !; C+PLACE is to
>+PLACE as C+! is to +!.
>
>So these are the historical names.
>
>APPEND is a natural language form of +PLACE.
>
>I am gathering my Forth writings of 22 years into a library of
>source files.
>
>Since I did originate it, I'll use +PLACE, with APPEND as an
>alias.

Guido Draheim wrote:
>However, using `append` in programs is still good
>and first of all, readable. It was not until I did investigate
>into different kinds of strings (zstrings!) that I had to dump
>the last argument. `appendz` does not read nicely, nor would be
>`appendw` - these names would be intuitivly mean adding-a-wchar
>or adding-a-zchar, and not a string of them. And `zappend` is
>simply unreadable at first glance (does it zap forth to another
>channel? [1]).

Coos Haak wrote:
>> [1] zappend - bad to read esp. for German-speakers. The language
>> has overtaken `zap` as a word to switch tv channels, or between
>> other channelized/categorized areas. The "-end" suffix is often
>> a continuuous form like "-ing" in English, and therefore `zappend`
>> is an actual valid word in word in German that would translate
>>
>Same problem here in Dutch (not Duits, that our word for German)
>I like DROP in the form of licorice.


Therefore, use +PLACE, Z+PLACE, W+PLACE - and keep APPEND just
for historical reasons and backward compatibility. The term
APPEND was listed in both mirror/comus and
mirror/toolbelt.

generated Tue Apr 28 11:05:53 2026^runner