Thanks everyone. This (let's say) creative use of 0 : 0 makes sense to me
now. I wonder if it's an accidental consequence of the implementation that
allows an expression following the 0, or whether it's a deliberate design
decision. Either way, it makes sense to have it documented. Can't see it in
NuVoc or the Dictionary. Of course, I may have overlooked it.

Honestly, to obtain something simple like multi-line noun definitions, ".
does seem like quite a heavy-handed tool. It does work however, so I
probably shouldn't grumble.

Cheers.

On Wed, Feb 10, 2016 at 10:29 PM, Matthew Baulch <[email protected]>
wrote:

> Looking at this more closely now. I'm a bit puzzled about the use of -.
> here. Obviously this is used here in dyadic form. In x -. LF the LF
> characters are, of course, removed from x. What is the x here? I have seen
> that it works--not doubting that. Just trying to work out how. Sorry.
> There's probably something obvious I've missed.
>
> On Wed, Feb 10, 2016 at 12:52 AM, Raul Miller <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
>> If you do not have good names for partial calculations, that might be
>> a sign that you need to think a bit more about the abstractions you
>> are using. It can be difficult for other people to read if you don't
>> make sufficient effort to label your abstractions.
>>
>> Also, I would note that your 'c0' is not a combinator, as you are not
>> using its dyadic definition. So you might want to use a different name
>> for that one. Perhaps:
>>
>> v0=:c0
>>
>> That said, if you really want to execute really long lines, you can do
>> that using ". 0 :0-.LF and indented text. (You need the indentation
>> because line feeds will not separate words here.)
>>
>> For example:
>>
>> myStruct=: ". 0 :0-.LF
>>   v0 p0 c1 p1 c2 p2 c3 p3 c4 p4 c5 p5 c6 p6 c7 p7 c8 p8 c9 p9
>>   c10 p10 c11 p11 c12 p12 c13 p13 c14 p14 c15 p15 c16 p16 c17
>>   p17 c18 p18 c19 p19 c20 p20 c21 p21 c22 p22 c23 p23 c24 p24
>>   c25 p25 c26 p26 c27 p27 c28 p28 c29 p29 c30 p30
>> )
>>
>> I hope this helps,
>>
>> --
>> Raul
>>
>> On Tue, Feb 9, 2016 at 4:59 AM, Matthew Baulch <[email protected]>
>> wrote:
>> > Suppose I wish to construct a complex, non-regular deeply nested
>> structure:
>> > to model some inherently non-linear system. A natural approach (for me,
>> > anyhow) is to construct a library of combinators, or a domain specific
>> > language, with which to specify the (boxed) structure.
>> >
>> > J rises easily to the task, and before long I'm looking at long function
>> > trains of the form
>> >
>> > myStruct =: c0 p0 c1 p1 c2 p2 ... cN pN
>> >
>> > where the ci are (combinator) verbs, and the pj are (parameter) nouns.
>> > Nice. Easy.
>> >
>> > Only trouble is, N may be large and J prefers such statements to sit on
>> a
>> > single line. Correct? I can split my definition:
>> >
>> > msPartA =. .....
>> > msPartB =. .....
>> > .....
>> > msPartX =. .....
>> > myStruct =: msPartA msPartB .... msPartX
>> >
>> > though this feels awkward. The most obvious issue is that the PartA,
>> ...,
>> > PartX are distracting; unless of course I can find a natural way of
>> > splitting and naming them. Ideally, the parts should be as close to a
>> > comfortable line width as possible. Again, awkward. If myStruct1 and
>> > myStruct2 have the same partitioning scheme but myStruct2 (for
>> instance) is
>> > much larger than myStruct1, there will be many sparsely, or many
>> > overpopulated lines. Awkward too.
>> >
>> > I love J. It handles complex regular data so elegantly. How can I bring
>> > similar elegance to irregular data? Can my combinators be rescued, or
>> > should I use another approach?
>> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>> > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>> For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
>>
>
>
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