...or, the other way around: in C, 0 is false and everything else is true.
On Thu, Oct 23, 2014 at 7:13 PM, Devon McCormick <[email protected]> wrote:
> Not really - in C, true is 0 and false is anything else.
>
> The main thing I'm getting at is the stupid insistence on "strong-typing"
> for its supposed advantages. What started me on this whole thread was
> having to write some Pascal code where I wanted to print the value of a
> Boolean, but can't, so I have to resort to crap like this:
>
> OobPrn := 'F';
> if isOob then OobPrn := 'T';
> println("Out-of-bounds: '+OobPrn);
>
> where "isOob" is a Boolean and "OobPrn" is a "shortstring".
>
> Compare this awkwardness to the simple elegance of Roger's example - where
> the "Boolean" 0s and 1s are treated like regular numbers when needed - or
> to the J extension of "+." and "*.". These mean "or" and "and", when used
> w/0s and 1s, but LCM (least common multiple) and GCD (greatest common
> denominator) when used with integers in general - which give the same
> answers when used w/0s and 1s whether you think you're doing LCM and GCD or
> "or" and "and".
>
> And I've got a start on my Wikipedia entry....
>
>
> On Thu, Oct 23, 2014 at 6:37 PM, Jon Hough <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> Doesn't J handle booleans the same as C, i.e. 0,1?
>> If not, how do APL/J handle booleans?
>>
>> --- Original Message ---
>>
>> From: "Devon McCormick" <[email protected]>
>> Sent: October 24, 2014 2:30 AM
>> To: "Chat forum" <[email protected]>
>> Subject: [Jchat] Characterizing how J and other APLs handle Booleans
>> distinctly from most languages
>>
>> Hi -
>>
>> While looking at the Wikipedia entry on "Boolean data type" recently, I
>> noticed that the APL family is - as usual - unrepresented. Since I was
>> looking here because of the maddening arbitrariness with which Booleans
>> are
>> handled in other languages, it occurs to me that the much cleverer
>> handling
>> of Booleans characteristic of the APL world should be given a higher
>> profile.
>>
>> So, any ideas on a Wikipedia entry for "APL, J" handling of Booleans?
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Devon
>>
>> --
>> Devon McCormick, CFA
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>>
>
>
>
> --
> Devon McCormick, CFA
>
>
--
Devon McCormick, CFA
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