A more apt analogy is that in a sufficiently rich programming language, programming is like writing poetry, a point Arthur Whitney made in http://mags.acm.org/queue/20090203/ (p.18) and Ken Iverson had made to me in conversation. In such a language there will be connections that are surprising, but no less valid for that.
----- Original Message ----- From: gary ng <[email protected]> Date: Wednesday, May 13, 2009 23:01 Subject: Re: [Jprogramming] Newbie question about {.&> To: Programming forum <[email protected]> > On Wed, May 13, 2009 at 7:35 PM, Roger Hui <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > It does save a pair of '()' but that seems to be not a good > > > practice as it > > > doesn't use the 'primary' functionality of '>' which is to unbox > > > > Who's to say what the "primary functionality" of > > something is? I have on occasion used the monad > > ":&.> to produced formatted numbers individually boxed: > > > For me, it is what the dictionary put most emphasis on(the > intended usage), > and to 'box' via 'unbox' through &. is much easier to understand. > > The analogy of '{.&>' would be like using tungsten light bulb as > a heat > source. It is legitimate and in fact more energy goes to heat > than light but > most people would think that I am weird if I do that. And for > people like my > mom who didn't study physic, it would take me some effort to > explain. I was > in my mom's position when I needed to ask for help. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
