On my to-do (and never-will) list for a number of years is a utility to detected un-persisted names (_1 = 4!:4), then scan through the session log for the lines that define them and their recursive dependencies, and output this to a script file, automatically.
-Dan -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Devon McCormick Sent: Monday, October 03, 2011 10:44 AM To: General forum Subject: Re: [Jgeneral] Neophyte puzzled with boxing/unboxing I thought I liked the APL workspace when I first started using J which is why I wrote my "WS" package. However, if you look at it, you see that it's misnamed because I never got past the point of storing nouns to file. It turns out that what I really liked about the APL workspace is the persistence of variables. Once I'd achieved this with "WS", I lost motivation to extend it to more complicated collections of objects. Loading code from scripts provides a good discipline as I find I often write a little helper function in-line but neglect to include it in a script and don't notice this until I try to run from a fresh session. Fortunately, in this case I have my saved emacs session I can go back to in order to get the missing definitions. On Sun, Oct 2, 2011 at 3:50 PM, Ian Clark <[email protected]> wrote: > > the same spirit of decommting workspace in flavor of scripts, that > searching > > names inside scripts is preferable to searching names inside loaded > locales. > > Habits of a lifetime, Bill. APL has induced an occupational deformity > in me. Basically I'd agree with you, as advice to beginners. > > As a callow youth, they taught me to fly planes. Experienced pilots > hated the idea of fly-by-wire. They wanted to know there was a direct > mechanical linkage from the joystick to the control surfaces, even if > (like power steering) it's only there for reassurance and can't > feasibly be used on its own. To me the "workspace" debate in J has > similarities. > > A lot depends on whether you're browsing someone else's code, as you > find it in your system, or writing your own for release. If the > latter, I'd say always work on the script itself. When all else fails, > only then work on what got squirted into memory. > > The fact you don't have a script in APL is not a defence of workspace > technology but a tribute to the stability of the full-screen (del) > editor -- agonisingly evolved over decades. Just think back to APLSV > on the early 3270 screens. > > But I shouldn't go digging up old bones. > > > On Sun, Oct 2, 2011 at 5:51 AM, bill lam <[email protected]> wrote: > > I didn't know this verb and have never used it before. However I guess, > in > > the same spirit of decommting workspace in flavor of scripts, that > searching > > names inside scripts is preferable to searching names inside loaded > locales. For > > example use FIF to search 'deb' in global names should return the same > (or > > more) definitions as that returing from whs. > > > > That said, I rarely use FIF by now because I seldom use ide either. > > > > ymmv > > > >> To sniff over any new word I've discovered, I make heavy use of my > home-brewed: > >> whs=: (>@whichlocales) ; whichscript > >> > >> used like this: > >> whs'deb' > >> ┌──────────────────────────────────────────┬─┬─┬─┬────┬────┐ > >> │/Applications/j602/system/main/strings.ijs│z│z│j│jfiw│jijs│ > >> └──────────────────────────────────────────┴─┴─┴─┴────┴────┘ > >> > >> ...from which you see "deb" resides all over the place (in identical > >> copies, fortunately :) > >> > >> I find "whs" egregiously useful. Most of the bugs I encounter come > >> from what is [not] loaded, and where it is [from]. > >> > >> The verbs it needs: whichlocales, whichscript, along with: > >> listnameswithprefix (just as useful) can be copied from: > >> http://www.jsoftware.com/jwiki/Phrases/Names . It happens they are > >> *not* part of stdlib. I think they should be. (@Ric; how about it?) > > > > -- > > regards, > > ==================================================== > > GPG key 1024D/4434BAB3 2008-08-24 > > gpg --keyserver subkeys.pgp.net --recv-keys 4434BAB3 > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > -- Devon McCormick, CFA ^me^ at acm. org is my preferred e-mail ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
