Bo, coming back to you late, now home from a Maine vacation.  Comments are 
inserted in your note.  Kip

Bo Jacoby wrote:
> This discussion on sets seems to be strictly on FINITE sets. No infinite set 
> is represented by an array in J. Right?
> 

Right.  It might be possible to simulate an infinite sequence as a verb that 
emits terms as required.

> A finite sets are conveniently represented by characteristic function also 
> called an indicator function, where f(x)=1 if x is an element of the set, and 
> f(x)=0 otherwise.
> 

This is useful for representing individually all the subsets of some given set, 
but it would not allow you to represent a set some of whose members are 
themselves sets.

> In J indicator functions are implemented simply bit arrays, which are easily 
> manipulated in J. What is the problem?
> 

You would have no problem as long as you didn't need to deal with sets some of 
whose members are sets.
> 

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