3 ms·

Thanks, that must be it. It makes sense as a very simple way to generate fixed 32-bit keys from words.

• drob518 1y ago
  Exactly. It's a tradeoff between storage space and flexibility. Forths built for larger environments will store the whole string and won't worry about it. If you're a 32-bit Forth with GBs of memory in the system, it's no big deal. But remember that Forths are often used in 16-bit systems with KBs of memory (max 64 KB), so they're trying to be quite careful with each byte allocated. The fact that Forth can operate in such environments is what makes them popular for embedded programming.