Andrew-- Yes, there are readable names that you may use for J's primitive graphic-character definitions. Some are defined in the scripts automatically loaded at startup.
Names for the character primitives can be had by loading: http://code.jsoftware.com/wiki/File:Primitiv.ijs . Translations between these names and characters are discussed in: http://code.jsoftware.com/wiki/Primitives_to_Mnemonics This script also allows for defining mnemonics which are Unicode characters in the spirit of APL. My extension of the above definition process is at: http://code.jsoftware.com/wiki/File:Aliases.ijs For describing many of the operations, this version offers some abbreviations and alternate names; you may add others. This script alters the former "primitives" script to enforce the relevant monadic or dyadic interpretation of different verbs which employ the same ambivalent graphic symbol; they yield syntax or domain errors rather than unexpected values when used with the wrong number of arguments. As for tacit definitions, I don't see them as being "the heart" of J, but I do use them frequently. A related tricky aspect is the use of Fork and Hook for routing arguments to their destinations; I tend to wish that visible symbols had been provided to denote their use. Welcome to the J-world. One writer claims that it can give you immediate results--and a lifetime of exploration. --Art Anger --------- Date: Sun, 19 Nov 2017 14:15:32 -0500 From: Andrew Dabrowski <[email protected]> ... 6. In the age of unicode, why /not/ use the special symbols from APL? We could use the J expressions to type them, but wouldn't the APL symbols look and read better? As it is J might be said to have the worst of both worlds. 7. Has anyone made up a set of aliases for beginners which provides natural language based names for the operations? A newbie could slowly add the abbreviations to his vocabulary, as one does with e.g. emacs. 8. The failure to clearly distinguish at the syntactic level between monadic and dyadic verbs, along with the laconic culture, makes tacit definitions almost unreadable for a beginner. This could have been avoided, but it seems the drive to score an eagle won out over the desire for clarity. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
