@Raul -- I think what you're proposing is in line with Henry's proposals (see earlier thread), which I'm in-process of implementing. But these will show on individual pages, not the NuVoc portal page.
Trouble is, I don't seriously believe in rank information on the NuVoc portal -- much less the "mu mv mu" -stuff for adverbs and conjunctions (I originally had: ? ? ?). I just did it as a service to people who prize it. @Joe - I've given up on J beginners with an APL background. They've either all ditched APL for J by now, or they never will. :-~ On Fri, Jan 24, 2014 at 3:44 PM, Joe Bogner <[email protected]> wrote: > Connecting two threads -- Ian wrote this here: > http://jsoftware.com/pipermail/programming/2014-January/034769.html > > > Thus, in the first year of learning J, I unconsciously conjectured Rank > > didn't matter -- for most purposes. You could intuit most problems, ones > > that don't emerge much for rank 3 arrays or less. In a lifetime of APL > I'd > > got away without bothering my head about verb rank. > > This has been my experience as well in my first year. > > On Fri, Jan 24, 2014 at 9:55 AM, Raul Miller <[email protected]> > wrote: > > Looking at your current nuvoc page, I see 22 distinct "ranks". The > > most common rank entries are _ _ _ (27 of those) and 0 0 0 (26 of > > those). Actual numeric values are limited to 0, 1, 2 and _. and there > > are also a variety of abstract values (mv, mu, lv, rv, lu, ru). > > > > So one observation is that the casual user will not understand that > > 'mv' means "the rank of the monadic definition of verb argument v". > > I think I understand the simple case of rank (at the wikipedia page > level[1]). I like the suggestion on somehow clarifying the differences > between the 22 possibilities. > > I also wonder if something really direct "verb rank matters most in > the following situations..." would be helpful. If it's mostly rank 4+ > arrays, then the complexity of the different cases may not be > encountered too frequently. This quote comes to mind: > > http://www.jsoftware.com/papers/perlis78.htm > In APL, what flashes through your mind is a cascade of operations: > chasing data through arrays, out of the other end of which come — > limping and bruised, you know — seven numbers. After having built up > arrays of rank eight and coming perilously close to a workspace full > out from the other end comes these seven numbers — and they’re pulled > out almost painfully — and you say to yourself, “My God, that’s > wonderful! That’s a mechanism!” > > If that's what those 22 cases are intended to support, I and many > other beginners to APL may have a long journey to go before it > matters. Beginners to J with an APL background are likely a different > story. Is NuVoc targeted more so at either one? > > > [1] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rank_(J_programming_language) > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
