Devon McCormick said: "I hope you're not using this as
an example of a coding style to emulate"
Not per se. I was using it as an example of J code I
actually read. It occurred to me, as I studied it,
that I could help other people see how to make sense
of it. I consider this verb to be an interesting
candidate because it involves both numeric and text
processing, along with output formatting, and it will
be a familiar problem domain for every reader.
Devon McCormick: "the use of uninformative names ...
only provides ammunition for critics who claim that
the language is unreadable"
I did not find the single-letter components to be
difficult. In comparison with the difficulty of
reading J primaries in context, that seems irrelevant.
One thing I did have difficulty with was
_3(_12&{.)\h
I wrestled with that for days. (Not full time; I only
squeeze J into short opportunities, most days,
including today's lunch hour.) Eventually, this
phrase suddenly made perfect sense and the dictionary
definitions involved went from being inscrutible to
plain. Wierd.
Paul Gauthier noted: "The documentation which is
included in the script file was not replicated in the
email which was confusing."
It may be worth noting that I've never seen that
documentation. Not being skilled at J, what I
discovered is that after I load the grid demonstration
this verb is defined. I put the name of the verb in
my console and get the definition. I still have only
a sketchy idea as to where I could look to see how
this came to be defined in my J session.
Eugene McDonnell wrote: "I think Chris Burke is
responsible for [this verb definition]." Thank you,
Eugene. Also, thank you for the additional references
to calendar material.
Tracy Harms
____________________________________________________________________________________
Don't get soaked. Take a quick peak at the forecast
with the Yahoo! Search weather shortcut.
http://tools.search.yahoo.com/shortcuts/#loc_weather
----------------------------------------------------------------------
For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
