I've been seeing syntax errors being thrown on functions copied from another
workspace. I've imported Blake McBride's APL editor from his GitHub site
(linked to by the GNU APL Community pages). It seems to be reasonably up to
date.
Once I have the workspace created containing the editor application, I )SAVE
it. I then create a new workspace and )COPY the functions in the editor
workspace into my current workspace. Then I attempt to use it to edit a
function (an alternative to the ∇ editor).
What I see is that the copied editor function will fail with a syntax error on
branch statements within the function:
)copy Editor
SAVED 2025-01-19 15:03:52 (GMT-5)
E∆Edit 'asd'
At all prompts you can type 'end' to exit or backup to the previous question.
You can often type 'help' to get help.
Enter the line numbers you wish to change, or [a,b,r]? 2
SYNTAX ERROR
E∆Piv[18] →(0=⍴t)/0
^^
However, if you look at the variables involved, there should be nothing that
should cause this syntax error
t
2
⍴t
1
0=⍴t
0
0/0
⍴0/0
0
The strange thing about this is that if I open the offending function in the ∇
editor and save it (making no changes), the error goes away... at least for
that function:
)si
∇E∆Piv
[51] ∇
E∆Edit 'asd'
At all prompts you can type 'end' to exit or backup to the previous question.
You can often type 'help' to get help.
Enter your edit command? edit
Enter the line numbers you wish to change, or [a,b,r]? 2
24
Enter your edit command? end
SYNTAX ERROR
E∆Edit[31] →(2↑bv←qq E∆Pim 'Enter your edit command')/31 34
^^
As you can see, another function is exhibiting the same error. Like the E∆Piv
function, opening the E∆Edit function seems to "fix"the issue.
What doesn't seem fix the issue is using ⎕CR and ⎕FX as an alternative to the ∇
editor.
)reset
⎕FX ⎕CR 'E∆Edit'
E∆Edit
E∆Edit 'asd'
At all prompts you can type 'end' to exit or backup to the previous question.
You can often type 'help' to get help.
Enter your edit command? edit
Enter the line numbers you wish to change, or [a,b,r]? 2
24
Enter your edit command? end
SYNTAX ERROR
E∆Edit[31] →(2↑bv←qq E∆Pim 'Enter your edit command')/31 34
^^
As you can see, that didn't fix the problem. Now open E∆Edit with the ∇ editor
and see what happens:
)reset
∇E∆Edit
[41] ∇
E∆Edit 'asd'
At all prompts you can type 'end' to exit or backup to the previous question.
You can often type 'help' to get help.
Enter your edit command? edit
Enter the line numbers you wish to change, or [a,b,r]? 2
24
Enter your edit command? end
As I said, this is very strange behavior. I can work around it, but quite
honestly it's a pain because I have no idea when the issue is going to crop up
again.
- Paul Rockwell
