Hi Don,
On Tue, May 19, 2009 at 11:09 AM, Don Watson <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hi Tracy,
>
> Thanks. Much of my problem is not so much learning J as learning the
> jargon that describes J.
In my experience, the jargon has been among the easier aspects of J.
I'm glad you have satisfaction in your progress.
> ... However, I am asking you to consider the two
> "things" separately, so that, while regular parentheses carry out both,
> something else, like a right parenthesis, can only delimit where the
> argument is found.
This sounds impossible to me because either we explicitly specify
arguments, or we don't. If we do we have explicit code, if we don't we
have tacit code.
> ... At this point,
> I see the problem as coming not from tacit J itself, but from the
> interface between tacit and explicit J.
I've also had difficulty with the difference between evaluating to a
noun ("calculator mode") and defining named verbs and operators.
> The inability to separate the boundary between the two from the
> identification of arguments is a problem. It also does not help that
> tacit J has one way of defining new verbs and explicit J has another.
Right. The fact that there are two different ways to quote explicit
definitions also makes this hard.
You may find it interesting to learn that tacit definition predates
explicit definition in J. If the latter looks more awkward to you than
the former, as it does to me, this can be good to note. In this sense
tacit counts as the more "normal" J.
>
> I believe it is possible clarify the interface between tacit J and
> explicit J in such as way that the two forms intermingle into a single
> form and tacit J can be used where its strengths are needed and
> explicit J where it provides a neater solution.
>
> Maybe inside-out parentheses are the wrong choice, but some
> other delimiter on the range of the search for tacit J arguments
> would really help the integration.
>
> Don
As I said before, it seems to me that the options are specifying
arguments or not specifying arguments. I don't see how to unify the
two notational forms, given this dichotomy.
Tracy
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