I often write something clear and commented.
Then try to make it look smart -sort of looking compiled - and stop
understanding it.
Ok .... maybe not often...
On 13 Jan 2014 19:31, "km" <k...@math.uh.edu> wrote:
> An important consideration is, "clarity for who"? I want the code to be
> clear to me when I come back to it later. For that reason I usually code
> explicitly, calling explicit helper verbs, although many of the lines are
> "tacit in spirit". Suggestive names help.
>
> --Kip Murray
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> > On Jan 13, 2014, at 12:57 PM, Björn Helgason <gos...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > If you try to read compiled executable code from C it would not be very
> > readable.
> >> On 13.1.2014 18:45, "Dan Bron" <j...@bron.us> wrote:
> >>
> >> We often say the APL family of languages allow us to use language as a
> tool
> >> of thought. How does this play out in practice? Do we approach
> reading J
> >> programs differently from those written in other languages? If so, how?
> >>
> >> These questions occurred to me today while I was knocking together an
> >> implementation of a RosettaCode task on reading configuration files.
> The
> >> task is to parse file formatted like the following:
> >>
> >> # This is the fullname parameter
> >> FULLNAME Foo Barber
> >>
> >> # This is a favourite fruit
> >> FAVOURITEFRUIT banana
> >>
> >> # This is a boolean that should be set
> >> NEEDSPEELING
> >>
> >> # This boolean is commented out
> >> ; SEEDSREMOVED
> >>
> >> Fuller example at [1]. After reading the intro, I copy/pasted the
> example
> >> into a J noun and proceeded to write this:
> >>
> >> deb L:0@:(({.~ ; [: < [: ;^:(1=#) ',' cut (}.~>:)) i.&1@:e.&'
> >> =')&>@(#~
> >> a:&~: > ';#'e.~{.&>)@:(dlb&.>)@:(LF&cut)
> >>
> >> Which is a verb which takes the configuration text as input and
> produces a
> >> table of name-value pairs as output. My first thought was "wow, I was
> able
> >> to knock that together in literally less than a minute, through simple
> >> incremental iterations in the REPL: J is AWESOME".
> >>
> >> But then, thinking about posting it, I realized "this is awful, no one's
> >> going to be able to read it like this, and it's going to take more work
> to
> >> make it readable than it took to make it actually work".
> >>
> >> So that got me thinking about what exactly we mean by J as a notation.
> And
> >> I wondered: how could we use the language to express our thoughts more
> >> clearly, and how does that differ from how we write J when we just want
> to
> >> get something done? And is this a different or more difficult problem
> for
> >> J than other languages?
> >>
> >> So, how would you write an configuration file parser in J, if clarity
> were
> >> an important concern? I'm interested in not only the actual program,
> but
> >> the reasoning behind the decisions you make.
> >>
> >> -Dan
> >>
> >> [1] RosettaCode task to read a configuration file:
> >> http://rosettacode.org/wiki/Read_a_configuration_file
> >>
> >>
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> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
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