Alan Stebbens <[email protected]> wrote: > The confusion comes from the ambiguous, everyday usage of "array" > versus the more exact APL/J definition, which I'll call "Array".
When we are discussing aspects of J language specifications or implementations, it is important to use words in the technical sense that J defines them, rather than in the sense that they are defined by an English dictionary or other common usage. If we use your convention of capitalizing the J versions of terms, then this thread is all about the confusion between the terms "array" and "Array". But nobody has mentioned any similar confusion between "noun" and "Noun", "verb" and "Verb", "adverb" and "Adverb", "integer" and "Integer" or other English terms that are assigned J-specific meanings. Programmers generally don't have a problem understanding the difference between unlimited "integers" and "Integers" limited by machine hardware or between mathematical "functions" and defined "Functions". J programmers don't have a problem viewing "Agenda" as an "Adverb", even though they know "agenda" is a "noun". C programmers might have a problem with "Array" because C can only create arrays of ranks higher than 0, so they bring C preconceptions to the definition of "array", which don't even exist in the English dictionary (since "an order or arrangement" can contain a single object by itself). -- Mark D. Niemiec <[email protected]> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
