thanks for the thoughtful responses. My investigation was along the lines of "insert" is so logical, is there more to the APL rhyme that I am missing?
from APLQA.htm > “I bet you are right! That makes as much sense as the name ‘lambda > calculus’!” Agreed that Bond is better than the name Curry Agreed, naming is tough. Here's my guess: (At,Atop) look similar as do the pair (Compose, Appose). The former are similar by prefix, and the latter by suffix. A guess at the meaning behind "At": monadicly apply u "at" the result of v, where v consumes diadic arguments x and y. Compose: it looks like F(uv) = F(u) * F(v), except that we also get to choose what verb is applied to the two expanded terms. Given how APL symbols were carefully chosen, maybe the J naming system went further to include phonetics. Regardless of these musing, I find the deliberate choice of using a different name for each of these variations to be useful. On the name "key". Agree. The oed entry is very apt. Reading that was motivation for the email. I included it to help anyone who read this. My situation: other shades of meaning were getting in the way such that at some point the word key had become more of a noun (no longer something you open a door with) to have variations such as primary, composite, foreign, unique, non-unique, and clustered. However, a purer sense of "key" is that it is more about the act of naming. Prior to this I was applying a slower algorithmic appreciation of /. For fun I was thinking about attempting to implement rotate |. with anagram A.. Did someone mentioned this on the forum recently? thanks, -Steven On 21 January 2013 20:22, Devon McCormick <[email protected]> wrote: > I thought "key" was quite evident from the OED definition that started this > thread. > > > On Mon, Jan 21, 2013 at 2:01 PM, Raul Miller <[email protected]> > wrote: > > > Not original to me, as a quick search on "two hardest problems in > > computer science" would verify. > > > > Also, it looks like I mutilated it -- I should have said "caching" > > rather than "garbage collection". > > > > Oh well... > > > > -- > > Raul > > > > On Mon, Jan 21, 2013 at 1:55 PM, Roger Hui <[email protected]> > > wrote: > > >> That said, I'd keep in mind that the *two* hardest problems in > > >> programming are naming things, garbage collection and off-by-one > > >> errors. > > > > > > Good one. :-) > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > On Mon, Jan 21, 2013 at 9:56 AM, Raul Miller <[email protected]> > > wrote: > > > > > >> I do not have any specific details on this issue. > > >> > > >> My impression was that this was a fairly informal process, (though > > >> probably influenced by writeups of other people's work on related > > >> subjects). > > >> > > >> It might be an interesting "treasure hunt" to find formal papers that > > >> use these words, or similar words, to describe similar concepts. > > >> > > >> That said, I'd keep in mind that the two hardest problems in > > >> programming are naming things, garbage collection and off-by-one > > >> errors. > > >> > > >> -- > > >> Raul > > >> > > >> On Mon, Jan 21, 2013 at 8:04 AM, Steven Taylor <[email protected]> > > wrote: > > >> > is there a reason why the words "bond", "compose", "atop", "at" and > > "key" > > >> > were chosen? Is there a naming context, or a natural language > > example to > > >> > give a sense of how these words came to represent these ideas? > > >> > > > >> > For the most part, I think I understand what these verbs and > > conjunctions > > >> > do... it's just that I don't have a story behind them in the same > way > > as > > >> I > > >> > might for something like boxing. i.e. > > >> > > > >> > real world places where you immediately apply the inverse of a > > preceding > > >> > function after doing an operation along the line of boxing > (something > > >> that > > >> > I read that Ken asked once). Examples of this: > > >> > > > >> > - open fridge door, get milk, close fridge door > > >> > - surgeon: make incision, do operation, stitch up > > >> > > > >> > following up on some of these words. Here's what I got out of the > oed > > >> > earlier: > > >> > > > >> > key: b. intr. Of a plant or animal: to be identified or assigned to > a > > >> > particular taxon by the use of a key. Usu. with out. > > >> > > > >> > Any clues appreciated. > > >> > > > >> > thanks, > > >> > -Steven T. > > >> > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > >> > For information about J forums see > > http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > > >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > >> For information about J forums see > http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > > >> > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > 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
