Re: Babel Forth

["Thomas S. Dye" <tsd@tsdye.online>]

Joost Kremers <joostkremers@fastmail.fm> writes:

> The `declare-function` call says that `forth-proc` can be found 
> in
> `gforth.el`, so the fact that you have `forth-mode.el` installed 
> is
> (probably) irrelevant. What you need is the file `gforth.el`. 
> Where it
> comes from is irrelevant, it just needs to be on Emacs' 
> `load-path`. (And
> it needs to actually provide `forth-proc`, of course, and make 
> it
> autoloadable, but I assume that's the case.)
>
> What I don't understand, though, is why there's no `(require 
> 'gforth)` in
> `ob-forth.el`. It seems that `forth-proc` is essential for 
> running Forth
> source blocks, so a `require` seems in order.
>
> The point is that `declare-function` is usually only used to 
> declare
> functions that are optional, meaning that `ob-forth.el` should 
> check if
> it's available and gracefully handle the case where it's not.
>
>> What is the best way forward here?
>
> What does the documentation for `ob-forth.el` say? Does it say 
> `gforth.el`
> needs to be installed? Otherwise perhaps ask the Org mailing 
> list or the
> ob-forth maintainer directly?

No one is maintaining ob-forth.el.

I found gforth.el in emacs/site-lisp and confirm that forth-proc 
is there.

Here is the relevant part of ob-forth.el:

    ;; Requires the gforth forth compiler and `forth-mode' (see 
    below).
    ;; https://www.gnu.org/software/gforth/

    ;;; Requirements:

    ;; Session evaluation requires the gforth forth compiler as 
    well as
    ;; `forth-mode' which is distributed with gforth (in 
    gforth.el).

    ;;; Code:

    (require 'org-macs)
    (org-assert-version)

    (require 'ob)
    (require 'org-macs)

    (declare-function forth-proc "ext:gforth" ())

It does not (require 'gforth), but strangely (to me) requires 
org-macs twice.

Perhaps ob-forth.el is broken?

All the best,
Tom

-- 
Thomas S. Dye
https://tsdye.online/tsdye