Right, first of all, I hope this got to the right place. I've only been receiving digests, and I'm not sure how to reply in order to preserve the thread sequence.
Many thanks to everybody for the comprehensive answers! Support of this calibre contributes *immensely* to the 'confidence factor' when evaluating a new language. Yes, I was looking for the tacit solution, and I'm glad to see I wasn't too far off with one of my attempts (% @ (+/) @ %). Just needed the @: Thanks to Bill Lam for the comments re verb rank. It sounds very consistent and sound, and I'll be checking it out. In case anyone wondered, yes, I do find the "@" approach to composition a bit more accessible, but that's just probably just due to my background. Cap ( [: ) looks cool too, but I haven't encountered a similar construct before. E.g. I can't intuitively see why Ric's suggestion ( [: % [: +/ % ) isn't ( [: % [: +/ [: % ), guess I'll just have to rtfm. Thanks also for all the other short and dual versions - great food for thiught - very much appreciated indeed. I look forward to plaguing you with more newbie qs in the near future. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
