Hello Ric;
Actually, $x is such a part of my toolbox that there is no thinking to
use it. Those adverse to a little thought might want to go in another
direction. It is also something one doesn't have to wait on the whims
of the implementors for like syntax coloring would be.
Now if J's wd had hooks to the session manager (an Enter event which
fires when the Enter key is pressed; a values property, with the most
recent values evaluated.) one could build one's own 'last result'
window. Actually a form and a multiline edit control could do this....
Sherlock, Ric wrote:
---Randy MacDonald wrote:
I guess all that I can say is that rank coloring wouldn't solve any
problems that $x doesn't. The existing syntax coloring
already taxes my
cognitive powers, as it has done since color came to APL+PC.
Yes $x will tell you the same information, but you would have to think to check
it. Colouring by rank would visually prompt you that something is different
without you doing anything extra.
I don't think you'd be part of the target audience of such a feature and if it
was implemented as envisaged you'd be able to turn it off (as you can with the
existing syntax colouring) - to the relief of your cognitive powers.
However it seems that rank colouring wouldn't be very easy to implement, so a
user-configurable version of Roger's suggestion below might serve the same
purpose and more.
---Roger Hui wrote:
Rather than tacking more stuff onto the session output
window, perhaps there could be a "information on the
last result" window. It would display things like:
- noun/verb/adverb/conjunction
- if noun,
- the internal type
- rank
- shape
- # elements (*/shape)
- ": representation as well as linear, boxed, etc.
- number of bytes
etc.
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|\/| Randy A MacDonald | APL: If you can say it, it's done.. (ram)
|/\| ramacd <at> nbnet.nb.ca |
|\ | | The only real problem with APL is that
BSc(Math) UNBF'83 | it is "still ahead of its time."
Sapere Aude | - Morten Kromberg
Natural Born APL'er |
-----------------------------------------------------(INTP)----{ gnat }-
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