World: r3wp

so I can compare a little , and I will probably need it also

>> a: copy []
== []
>> b: 'test
== test
>> append a :b
== [test]
>> type? first a
== word!
>> find a 'test
== [test]
>> c: ['test]
== ['test]
>> find a first c
== none

That just bothers me.

type? first ['test]
== lit-word!

Yes I know.

My point is that REBOL is not consistent.

Why can I do a find using a lit-word but not get results when using 
the lit word from a block?

find a 'test works but find a first c doesnt.

I would have to use find a to-word first c to get a match.

I think it is a bug. But we will probably see gurus trying to find 
an excuse, why sometimes you can't code in REBOL different way than 
to simply try some stuff in console ...

And - imo if RT would post some formal specification to the language, 
we could fix some gotchas and surprises, not trying to find academic 
theories, why it work certain way ...

insert as an operation does not preserve datatype. It reduces litword 
to word. Not sure there is a reason to do so ...

Yeah, that to me would be a bug.

>> append [] to-lit-word 'a
== ['a]

Yeah Henrik but that is a workaround really.

the 'a was already a lit-word to begin with.

Henrik - but - that is exactly the excuse I was talking about

why should I use to-whatever for one datatype, but not for the other 
one?

the question is probably which operation is more common.

I'd bet Carl did it that way, because it is something he does more, 
than the other way around.

hmm, but it can really lead to surprises, as Paul got - trying to 
find something by reference ....

To me it is one of the exceptions to the rule things.  With REBOL 
you gotta have all these exceptions to the rule.

I'm not defending it, just trying to come up with a theory.

... but yes, REBOL is dynamic, so it might be a problem, to have 
all cases working as expected ...

lol

because I know that Carl works alot more with cases of usage rather 
than theoretical correctness, as long as the result isn't completely 
backwards/illogical.

Well, at least I know how to get around it which is why I just mentioned 
that it "bothers me".

Now someone clever should answer, if it would have some consequences 
to not reduce lit-word upon block insertion?

But to me Henrik the append or insert should be able to look at the 
argument and see it is already a lit-word and append it as such.

I was going to write something clever about that, but I think trying 
to fit such a change in has some pretty big ramifications for how 
words are used in REBOL. :-)

anyhoo, I can't defend it, so I'll let BrianH take over.

Heh.

Well at least you didn't try to give excuses.

Thanks Henrik.

It's not the insert that changes the litword to a word, it is the 
initial evaluation of the litword. By the time insert sees it it's 
already a word.

But couldn't insert be modified to see that it is appending a lit 
word to a block and make the appropriate modification?

INSERT wasn't appending a lit-word, it was appending a word. DO converted 
the lit-word to a word, not INSERT.

In the example, I gave I showed that b was a lit-word being appended 
to a.

well at least in my understanding of it.

But I already get the idea.  That the idea is that it it is now a 
word and  not a lit-word!

No, it was an expression of the words append and a and a lit-word 
'b. DO evaluated the expression, and while doing so evaluated the 
'b to create b. Then it passed the b to the function referenced by 
the word append.

Back to this issue, I checked replace and it doesn't support replacing 
word! in a block with lit-words.

Code? A lit-word is an active value, like a function. You need to 
use get-word references if they are assigned to variables, or to-lit-word 
if they are literal in a place where they will be evaluated.

I'm moving on from that issue.  I'll wait and consider R3.  But these 
pitfalls have already got me into other languages.

R3 is no different from R2 when it comes to lit-words. REPLACE is 
the same in both too.

Yeah was figuring that would be the case.

That's funny, other languages' pitfalls get me more into REBOL.

REPLACE is safe for active values, so it definitely will allow you 
to replace words with lit-words, as long as you actually pass it 
lit-words.

This is true for R3 and 2.7.6+ at least.

Not an issue really.  Good think about REBOL is you can usually find 
a workaround.