f ([: h g) e
On 11/30/2011 8:34 AM, Tracy Harms wrote: > I agree with R.E. Boss that the language is crippled, not improved, by > avoiding composing conjunctions. > > On Wed, Nov 30, 2011 at 2:37 AM, R.E. Boss<r.e.b...@planet.nl> wrote: > >> >> >> IMO the role of @ is essential and by removing it you amputate J. > > ... >> > > What stands out to me as the greatest loss is that a very common phrasing > decision is eliminated. I think of this as the "inside, outside" decision, > and it's about where to write a monadic verb that takes the result of a > fork. It can be put outside the fork using [: > > [: h f g e > > or it can appear inside the fork using @: (or another compositional > conjunction) > > f h@:g e > > There are situations where "h" and "g" are more readily thought of > together. In those situatons, using a composition in the center tine is a > boon. There are other times where "h" seems nicer posed against the train > as a whole, so Cap works well. There are no simple rules for resolving > these differences, and they're mainly aesthetic. > > Programmers who learn tacit form will be up against this pattern sooner or > later. I can't imagine anybody becoming even modestly fluent without > learning to see v2@:v1 as a single verb, and so recognize the "inside" form > as a single fork, while the "outside" form is two forks. > > My strongest misgiving about the idea being called "Simple J" is that it > will not fit facilitate reading. In my own learning process I read far more > J than I wrote, and in the early stage most of what I read was not within > the range of what I could have written. An introduction to the language > that omits compositional conjunctions will not prepare people for reading > the J code that is actually out there to be read. It won't adequately help > somebody who's learning the language in order to make changes to an > existing J application. And it might be taken to suggest that the > difficulties encountered in learning J are due to programmers not having > kept things "simple" by using only verb trains. Difficulties will arise, > but that won't be their cause. > > --Tracy > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
