The more general question is, why have control structures in J at all. a. Having control structures makes the explicit definition more expressive.
b. Gerunds and other tacit phrases are not so convenient when there are >2 names or expressions involved. As a simple example: if. 0>(*:b)-4*a*c do. 'complex roots' else. 'real roots' end. A tacit version would involve catenating a,b,c and then picking out the items. ----- Original Message ----- From: David Ward Lambert <[email protected]> Date: Tuesday, February 2, 2010 9:19 Subject: Re: [Jprogramming] loopless programming question To: [email protected] > I don't understand why j has a select/case statement. > Gerunds ought to be sufficient. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
