Roger Hui <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> Using "????i.5" to display "+/i.5" obscures the power
> of adverbs.  +/x and */x tell you that the two operations are related.  Not 
> so Sigma
> x and 
> Pi x.  And what do you do for *./x (for example)? 
> Big LCM?

Sum and Product are probably the two most frequently used phrases of the form v/
and, as such, possibly worthy of their own special primitives or symbols.

There are many places where J uses a single symbol to replace a commonly-used
phrase of several symbols, as a special instance of a more general-purpose 
primitive.

In some cases, this use is intuitively obvious:
 -y instead of 0&-y
 -.y instead of 1&-y
 %y instead of 1&%y
 %:y instead of 2&%:y
 !y instead of 1&!y
 #.y instead of 2&#.y
 #:y instead of 2&(#.^:_1)y
 u&:v instead of u&(v"_)
 u&.:v instead of u&.(v"_)
 u@:v instead of u@(v"_) or ([:u v)
 j.y instead of 0&j.y or x j.y instead of x(+j.)y
 r.y instead of 1&r.y or x r.y instead of x(*r.)y
 q:y instead of 3&q:y
 x:y instead of 1&x:y
 0:y instead of 0"_ y
 (n u v) instead of (n"_ u v)

In some cases, it is not:
 <:y insted of -&1 y
 >:y instead of 1&+y
 +y instead of _10&o.y
 +:y instead of 2&* y
 -:y instead of %&2 y
 x-:y instead of x=&<y or x=y instead of x-:"0 y
 (v each) instead of v&.>

-- Mark D. Niemiec <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

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