World: r3wp

for example, parens are active, but they are word-inactive

(which is conveinient)

OK. There is stuff like functions, and these are called "active values" 
- they behave consistently for inline, regular or explicit evaluation. 
There is stuff like parens, which behave one way for inline, and 
a different way for regular or explicit evaluation - what term would 
you like to use to refer to this pattern with? Because those are 
the only two choices that would make sense with lit-words and lit-paths.

Maxim apparently prefers that lit-words and lit-paths act like parens, 
and so does Geomol. I would be OK with that model.

I prefer that as well

Then please say so in a comment to #1434, so we can have a consensus 
recorded :)

OK, I will try

Then I can change the "should be" comments in the ticket example 
code accordingly :)

The proposed model is something like this:
>> 'a/1 
== a/1 ; inline evaluation of lit-path converts to path 
>> b: quote 'a/1 
== 'a/1 
>> b 

== 'a/1 ; regular evaluation of lit-path value does not convert to 
path 
>> do :b 

== 'a/1 ; explicit evaluation of lit-path value does not convert 
to path


So it's not exactly like parens, but it's what Maxim, Geomol and 
I would prefer.

Your terminology:

inline evaluation
regular evaluation
and
explicit evaluation


is acceptable for me (although I am not sure about the "regular evaluation", 
isn't there a chance to find a better notion?)

I hope so - that term seems to need too much explanation.

how about "indirect evaluation"?

implicit?

(there is a level of idirection, since an evaluated word refers to 
a value)

so, my preferred would be "indirect evaluation"

But, again, we actually can see two kinds of indirect evaluation:

Inline indirect evaluation
, or "explicit indirect evaluation"

Sure. The reason I called it "regular" is because a word! has no 
markings, either in terms of characters added to the syntax, or qualifiers 
added to the type name. This implies that word! evaluation is the 
default, or the regular style, while the others are exceptional.

:a evaluation is inline too, so "inline indirect evaluation" could 
apply to that.

Why I hesitated to write my preferences regarding indirect evaluation 
of lit-words was, that I felt the #1434 ticket was more about the 
explicit evaluation

The #1434 ticket is about making lit-word and lit-path consistent 
with each other, and about documenting some of the intentional changes 
from R2.

Are you OK with this, Ladislav?
>> 'a/1 
== a/1 
>> b: quote 'a/1  b 
== 'a/1 
>> do quote 'a/1 
== 'a/1

Or do you require this?
>> do quote 'a/1 
== a/1

Yes, but the summary says "DO evaluation...", which, for me, means 
either "inline evaluation", or "explicit evaluation".

All of this evaluation is done with DO. The question is *how* it 
is done with DO.

OK, nevermind. I prefer

    do quote 'a/1

to yield

    == a/1

to be honest

As long as that is documented, I would be OK with that too. Geomol? 
Maxim?

, i.e. I see a greater difference between direct and indirect evaluation, 
than between inline and explicit evaluation.

Then you can put your preferred behavior model (with that i.e. justification) 
in your comment, and we can get a consensus there through people 
agreeing with you. This would be the code:

>> 'a
== a
>> b: quote 'a  b
== 'a 
>> do quote 'a
== a
>> 'a/1
== a/1 
>> b: quote 'a/1  b
== 'a/1 
>> do quote 'a/1
== a/1

I will write it, removing the older (and maybe misleading) comments

Cool (because I definitely misunderstood that last comment).

one more question (I guess, that a kind of glossary may be of use). 
How about replacing the "explicit evaluation" by "immediate evaluation" 
to contrast it more with the "inline evaluation"?

may not be ideal, just wondering whether we could find something 
which would be obvious to be opposite of "inline"

I meant explicitly calling DO. The other two styles of evaluation 
are usually the result of calling DO implicitly (through function 
evaluation, IF, etc.).

All of those forns of evaluation are done by calling DO in one way 
or another.

OK, nevermind, I shall use "explicit evaluation" for now

We need to make sure that we don't follow the same pattern for set-words 
and set-paths. Explicit DO of set-word/set-path values doing any 
setting is another security hole.

I do not have any preferences regarding explicit evaluation of set-words 
yet (do not use it), but would be curious, whether there are other 
users having some preferences in that regard.

I like the current behavior of set-words:
>> a: 1 do quote a: 2 a
** Script error: invalid argument: a:
But the behavior of set-paths leaves a bit to be desired:
>> a: [1] do quote a/1: 2 a
== [1]  ; no error triggered, just a noop.

yeah an error there would be better.

Considering that the main use of that would be to get access to values 
in function code blocks that you shouldn't have access to, triggering 
an error seems best.

I'll write up a bug ticket about that.

I would like to direct your attention to the

http://issue.cc/r3/1641

ticket, since it is (IMO) directly related to the glossary.

I figured out a new way to express the equivalence that can safely 
be used for word! (http://issue.cc/r3/1882), path! (http://issue.cc/r3/1881), 
lit-word! and lit-path! (http://issue.cc/r3/1434), set-word! and 
set-path! (http://issue.cc/r3/1883), and get-word! and get-path! 
(current behavior), that matches the behavior of paren!. This code 
should work in all cases.

use [a b] [
    a: func [] ["blah"]

    foreach t compose [(paren!) (to-block any-word!) (to-block any-path!)] 
    [

        assert [any [all [error? try reduce [to t 'a] error? try [do to t 
        'a]] same? do reduce [to t 'a] do to t 'a]]
        assert [b: to t 'a strict-equal? to t 'a b]
    ]
]


Basically, the equivalence of an individual type would be this (using 
word! as an example):
    same? do [a] do 'a
    b: 'a same? 'a b


The important part of the equivalence would be that DO value would 
be equivalent to DO reduce [:value], that it be equivalent to evaluating 
that value inline *in a block all by itself*. That would deal with 
the parameter problem, with making sure that set-words and set-paths 
trigger errors properly, it even would work with refinements and 
issues.

The only thing that it isn't equivalent for is unset words of the 
word! type or as the first element of a path! - inline evaluation 
triggers an error, explicit DO just returns unset.

I mean, wouldn't be equivalent after those tickets go through. Do 
we need another ticket or are we OK with the unset word difference?

Didn't you forget about the difference between inline evaluation 
of blocks versus explicit evaluation of blocks?

No, I just didn't include them in that list. It's a special case.

yes, that exception should be kept, certainly

How about the unset word exception? Should explicit DO trigger an 
error too?

no harm if it does, IMO

That would also extend to unbound words. The harm would be in having 
explicit DO trigger an error in an otherwise harmless case that would 
be common in data. Do we need this error?