Hi Eric
Thanks for the input about "action". It seems to me the documentation should
be expanded to cover some of this stuff. As you say, it's a bit mysterious.
Larry :-)
PS I have been using your "huh" program for a while. It is really useful
and interesting. Also fun!!
----- Original Message -----
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, December 08, 1999 5:12 PM
Subject: [REBOL] What is an action? Re:
>
> Larry,
>
> Actions are a type of "function" (in its broader Rebol sense of
any-function!)
> that can't be created using Rebol itself. Actions are for all practical
> purposes the same as natives (unless you're a Rebol Creator), but there is
> some mysterious difference I've never seen explained. Anyone know what the
> difference is?
>
> For example:
>
> >> type? :not
> == native!
> >> type? :none?
> == action!
> >> type? :ask
> == function!
>
> What you see here is the message that Rebol gives you when a datatype
return
> value is left over after a console command expression is evaluated. When
you
> do:
>
> >> type? function!
> == datatype!
>
> what Rebol sees is the word 'function! , and when it evaluates that word
the
> result is the function! datatype, and when type? gets that as an argument
it
> returns the datatype! datatype. Now for some reason there are two
datatypes
> that are not assigned to a corresponding word: action! and unset! This
> oversight can be remedied easily:
>
> >> action!: type? :none?
> == action!
> >> unset!: (type?)
> == unset!
>
> I've complained about this out to feedback, twice, to no avail.
>
> By the way, there's a function on rebol.org you can use to print out all
the
> words defined in Rebol categorized by their datatype - this will allow you
> to see which "functions" are actions, functions, natives and ops.
>
> http://www.rebol.org/utility/huh.r
>
> See you,
> Eric
