Hi Raul,
You said:
"Does this help?"
Yes it does help.
You said:
"One important issue is that J's grammar has been implemented.
This means that any inconsistencies which would prevent
implementation have already been resolved."
This makes sense. I wouldn't want to disagree with your
position on this. However, hasn't the right to left grammar also
been implemented in interactive J?
You said;
"Second, fork/hook grammar is right-to-left. For example,
f g h i j
is equivalent to
f g (h i j)"
Well, it is and it isn't right to left. (f g (h i j)) and (f g h i j)
are a different grammar from f g (h i j). I suspect, though, that
we have no disagreement here. Maybe my term "right-to-left"
isn't a good one, but I am sure we agree on what I mean
You said:
"First, there is no universal "better". Forks allow the literal use of
a set of not-uncommon mathematical expressions, but I am
uncomfortable with trying to express this as some kind of
universal "better" mechanism.
Another potential issue is expressiveness. J's forks
let me express some ideas rather concisely. I suspect
that I would have problems with this kind of thing in an
implementation of monadic chaining. I can do a lot
with forks "
I accept the truth of what you say. I respect what you
can do with forks. I like the idea of forks. I have no desire
to have such capability removed from J.
You said:
"That said, I think what you are really asking is for a contrast
between J's current grammar and some of your proposals.
I might be thinking wrong, but I can try providing some of
these contrasts."
That would really help, because in the examples I see in
the documentation, the fork grammar is more of a handicap
than help. There is a continual need for "@ or "@:" to act
in lieu of parentheses.I really need to see multiple
applications of the fork in one sentence or expression.
My position is that I would like to see the capability for
both fork/hook grammar and what I mean by right-to left
grammar to have a tacit form. I suspect the following, that:
1) In some situations, fork/hook tacit J is the only answer.
2) In other situations, the best answer is to use fork/hook
tacit for some of the work and right-to left tacit for
the rest.
3) Many beginners would be better using right-to-left tacit
first - while there will be others who will want to go
straight to forks and hooks.
Anyway, thanks for your help. I look forward to seeing
your examples.
Don
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