Ian wrote: > can't believe [a tacit-to-explicit translator] > hasn't been done already.
It is not so surprising. When you want it, you cannot make it. And when you can make it, you no longer want it. For the subset that can make it and still want it, it is somewhat difficult to remember exactly what you wanted. For example, where is it appropriate to cut a tacit one-liner into smaller chunks to be distributed among several lines in the resulting explicit definition? Certainly not at every @ . Etc. On my J todo list for several years has been a J "coach" similar to the "Regex Buddy" at [1]. I've just never got up the initiative to do it. On a more promising front, Bob Therriault has recently been building web videos that demonstrate certain J primitives and tacit expressions graphically [2]. Personally, I learned tacit by writing, rather than reading, a lot of it. J's default interface encourages this habit; it is productive & fun to build programs in the IJX window, which effectively limits you to one line. Using IJSes & flipping back and forth was enough of an additional friction that I never developed a taste for explicit code and its multiple lines. But having written enough, I also find tacit easy to read. Whether it's easier or harder than explicit (or than Java, or English, etc) depends on the application. -Dan [1] Regex Buddy: http://www.regexbuddy.com/regex.html [2] Bob's animated explanation of J adverbs: http://bobtherriault.wordpress.com/2010/11/17/those-tricky-adverbs/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
