On 11 April 2011 03:34, Don Guinn <[email protected]> wrote: > I fail to see your confusion.
I am not confused. And I am not a newcomer to J. I have no difficulties using / in practice. I only observe that, in its article on /, the Dictionary is somewhat vague. And also that, if / was designed to admit an initial value, it would be more regular and less anomalous. (Not that I propose to change it.) > You need to read the dictionary very > carefully. It's wording is very precise and compact. Compact, yes. Precise (in the particular case), no. > It is also written in English which is ambiguous. Ambiguous is something a definition of a programming language shold not be. It's either precise or ambiguous, not both. > Try to understand what it is saying and the concept it is conveying. That's a good general advice, but we are discussing one specific definition. What, of all I've said, makes you think that I don't understand what the definition says? Raul Miller wrote: > I think your problem here is that the rules about evaluation are > general as opposed to being a part of the meaning of a specific word. The general rules of evaluation apply to the general construction and interpretation of expressions. The definitions of verbs, adverbs, and conjunctions are each a separate entity whose puprose is to make precise the meaning of that verb etc. And since we are discussing the definition of a specific adverb, /, I've said enough on why I see it wanting in terms of precision. > Perhaps some of the introductory content from the dictionary would help here. Please don't treat me as a newbie. I am not a J guru, but not that ignorant either. I have no problem of understanding, I just happen to be making certain observations and I am, admittedly, exacting w.r.t. the statement of definitions. Consider me a nitpicket if you so prefer. I can admit that, for many readers, definitional unambiguity is not so important, but I am not one of those readers and I can tell precision from imprecision. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
