After all the messages back and fort I am not clear as to what it is you are after.
At one time you seemed to be interested in using J for teaching math. You seem to be happy with explicit J but not with tacit J. I can agree that for beginners tacit J can be looking very complicated. So what I am thinking now that you are not interested in J for teaching just tacit J. Anyway you have got a lot of interesting comments from many people and I have managed to learn a bit about tacit J along the way. I have never been very much into tacit J and I am pretty sure that majority of us who do like J are much more into explicit J. I try out tacit J once in a while and I would like to learn it better. I have only been interested in and worked with J 19 years so the learning curve is somewhat slow for me. I did start using APL 37 years ago and I do use APL occasionally but after using J it gets increasingly harder to go back to APL. 2009/4/30 Don Watson <[email protected]> > H Bjorn, > > I agree that this can be done, but it isn't implicit and it adds > trappings of Computer Science that are a barrier to Mathematics teaching. > > Don > > > > sqrsum =: 4 : '%:x + y' > > 3 sqrsum 5 > > 2.82843 > > 3 + 5 > > %: 8 > > %: 8 > > 2.82843 > > > > > > 2009/4/30 Don Watson <[email protected]> > > > >> Hi Don, > >> > >> You said: > >> > >> > Maybe I'm really missing something, but why use "[" and "]" at all? > >> > Just use "x" and "y". > >> > >> That's an interesting question. If I have the J expression: > >> > >> %:x + y > >> > >> and want to make a verb sqrsum, I could define a way of doing it - > >> that > >> doesn't presently exist exactly in this form - such that: > >> > >> sqrsum =: %:x + y > >> > >> or that: > >> > >> sqrsum =: %: [ + ] > >> > >> and that in either case: > >> > >> 3 sqrsum 5 is equivalent to: %: 3 + 5 > >> > >> In the second case > >> > >> 1) I have a form that is full of nothing but verbs. > >> 2) I can state that the arguments are defined implicity. > >> > >> In the first case I need a convention that x and y are special > >> nouns used in named verbs with a special purpose. I obviously have nouns > >> as > >> well in this verb definition, and I think it is harder to suggest that > >> argument > >> inclusion is implicit. > >> > >> Don > >> > >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > >> > > > > > > > > -- > > Björn Helgason, Verkfræðingur > > Fugl&Fiskur ehf, > > Þerneyjarsundi 23, Hraunborgum > > Po Box 127,801 Selfoss , > > t-póst: [email protected] > > gsm: +3546985532 > > Landslags og skrúðgarðagerð, gröfuþjónusta > > http://groups.google.com/group/J-Programming > > > > > > Tæknikunnátta höndlar hið flókna, sköpunargáfa er meistari einfaldleikans > > > > góður kennari getur stigið á tær án þess að glansinn fari af skónum > > /|_ .-----------------------------------. > > ,' .\ / | Með léttri lund verður | > > ,--' _,' | Dagurinn í dag | > > / / | Enn betri en gærdagurinn | > > ( -. | `-----------------------------------' > > | ) | (\_ _/) > > (`-. '--.) (='.'=) ♖♘♗♕♔♙ > > `. )----' (")_(") ☃☠ > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > -- Björn Helgason, Verkfræðingur Fugl&Fiskur ehf, Þerneyjarsundi 23, Hraunborgum Po Box 127,801 Selfoss , t-póst: [email protected] gsm: +3546985532 Landslags og skrúðgarðagerð, gröfuþjónusta http://groups.google.com/group/J-Programming Tæknikunnátta höndlar hið flókna, sköpunargáfa er meistari einfaldleikans góður kennari getur stigið á tær án þess að glansinn fari af skónum /|_ .-----------------------------------. ,' .\ / | Með léttri lund verður | ,--' _,' | Dagurinn í dag | / / | Enn betri en gærdagurinn | ( -. | `-----------------------------------' | ) | (\_ _/) (`-. '--.) (='.'=) ♖♘♗♕♔♙ `. )----' (")_(") ☃☠ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
