From: Joel VanderWerf <vjoel@...>
Date: 2001-12-02T18:46:57+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:27263] Re: Musing

Stefan Schmiedl wrote:

> which makes it hard to use.
> it would be nice, if you could create a snapshot of a ruby process
> like some lisps and smalltalks do. throw in something like FORGET
> from FORTH and you're neatly set.
> 
> oh, for those non-FORTHers out there :-)
> FORGET xxx erases all of the definitions made after xxx, which comes
> in handy, if you need to restore some prior state.

That would be harder in Ruby than in Forth. Definitions in Forth are
pushed onto a stack-like dictionary data structure. All forget does is
move the "top of stack" pointer back to the specified definition. In
Ruby you'd have to keep track of every assignment (constant or variable)
in the global scope, every method definition, etc.

--
Joel VanderWerf                          California PATH, UC Berkeley