I find it useful to have very simple rules about naming.
Upper case for global nounnames and use descriptive names and preferably
keep them in a special locale.
local names short and lower case a, b, c,....
The rest usually optional but keep them few and separate in locales.
2007/5/19, Pascal Jasmin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
I'd suggest the following syntax conventions for J:
Variable names:
Adverbs and Nouns start with upper case
conjunctions and verbs start with lower case
(Useful but optional: VARIABLENOUN vs CONSTANt or VariableNoun vs
CONSTANT)
Spacing between words is to be relative to minimal spacing which varies (0
or 1) between built-ins, literals, and variables. There are 3 recommended
spacing minimal, minimal +1, and minimal+2
Spacing rules:
Conjunctions have minimal spacing to their right arg.
Adverbs have minimal+1 spacing to their left arg
Verbs have minimal+2 spacing to their right arg
Dyadic verbs have minimal +1 spacing to their left arg.
With these rules, any expression can be read without knowing the form of
speech of individual words.
(where v=verb, n=noun, a=adverb, c= conjunction (x)=parenthesised
expression)
a B c D is v n v n
< 2 - 1 is same
a + 2 &(c d E) is v + 2 &(v c n)
a B or a b is adverb (c n or c v)
A B is verb phrase or adverb: n a or a a
A B C is verb phrase or adverb: n a a or a a a
A b C is noun: n v n
A B C is noun: n a n
a B is noun: v n
a b is adverb: v c
a b c is verb phrase: v c v
a B is verb phrase : v a
a B C is verb phrase : v a a
A B C is verb phrase or adverb : n a a or a a a
a b is hook: v v
a b C is hook: v v a
a b C is noun: v v n
(x)a or (x)A is adverb: x must resolve to c
(x) a B is noun: n v n
(x) a is hook: v v
(x) a b is fork: v v v or n v v
A (x) is adverb or verb phrase: a a or n c or n a
A (x) B is noun: n a n
A (x) B is adverb or verb phrase: n a a or a a a
A (x)b is verb phrase: n c v
a (x) is v c or v a
a (x)b is verb phrase: v c v
a (x) B is verb phrase: v a a
a (x) is hook or noun: v v or v n
Some Notes:
The spacing corresponds to the bonding order (closer words bond higher
than distant words)
The ambiguous cases of whether the left most word of an expression is a
noun or adverb when all other elements of the leftmost verb phrase are
adverbs would come up less frequently than the alternate ambiguities that
occur when you make conjunctions and nouns be the designated upper case
variables.
Higher order adjectives (adjectives that return adjectives) can be spaced
appropriately by parenthesising them as shown in the (x) examples above,
with a lot of ambiguity resolved.
On another note, why must this be a syntax error:
a c v while a (c v) is not? I might be missing something (as usual), but
would understand the 2 expressions to be equivalent.
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/|_ .-----------------------------------.
,' .\ / | Með léttri lund verður |
,--' _,' | Dagurinn í dag |
/ / | Enn betri en gærdagurinn |
( -. | `-----------------------------------'
| ) | (\_ _/)
(`-. '--.) (='.'=)
`. )----' (")_(")
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