I had a small "ah hah" moment this morning while working through the problem of ^: and boxes that Pascal posted[1]
I recognized a fork pattern as a natural solution to the problem - before writing it. Take a list of data, execute two functions against it and then execute a function against those results. Just like mean: +/ % # "(divide) the (sum) by the (count)" My solution was: "(multiply) the (unboxed) by the (increment of 1 rotated list tested for boxed 2)" I feel like I've taken a small step forward in an 'advanced beginner'[2] stage to starting to think in terms of the patterns of the language. I thought of a weak analogy that helps describe my experience with J so far. Writing J is like writing a Haiku. J provides the structure to make the poem simple and powerful. I could sit down and write a poem in another language (say javascript). Without the structure (forks, trains of evaluation) and vocabulary, it wouldn't have the same "quality"... I can't describe "quality" easily, but I do remember a view of it that made sense to me in the Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance[3] which I've only read about 3/4 of about 5 years ago... [1] - http://jsoftware.com/pipermail/programming/2014-May/037254.html [2] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreyfus_model_of_skill_acquisition [3] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_and_the_Art_of_Motorcycle_Maintenance ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
