On Wed, Dec 29, 2021 at 8:09 PM Jose Mario Quintana <[email protected]> wrote: > > My stance here is that *any* tool set necessarily is limited (aka > > "weak") outside of a limited range of targets. For example: > > ... > > Yes, I have known for many years that you feel very constricted when you > are asked to use only tacit tools when entertaining a nontrivial > programming exercise. There is really no need for you to emphasize it.
But there is when we are discussing the topic and my reasons for that stance are relevant to the current discussion. > > But you're probably also not tracking orbital debris. > > Are you tracking orbital debris with explicit J? No more than I am chopping down trees with explicit J. Well, maybe slightly more -- but only in toy problems. > > > I would accept that as a tacit admission that the j903 tacit tools are > > > weak. > > > > Sure, and I also think that that's what makes them desirable. > > So, we agree! (That j903 tacit tools are weak.) And that's not necessarily a bad thing: The point I have been trying to express here is that "weak for a task that the tools were not designed for" is a necessary characteristic of any useful tool set. Boxed verbs come with costs: Documentation costs, implementation costs, maintenance costs (in the J implementation), debugging costs (in code which did not intend to use the feature but erroneously used it), opportunity costs (time that could have been spent on other things). To make a decent decision here one has to be aware of both the value and the costs of that decision (and someone has to step up to cover those costs). I understand that you have been supporting an implementation with boxed verbs, so you seem motivated there. But "tacit is weak" does not adequately express the costs vs the benefits of this approach, Am I making sense to you? Thanks, -- Raul ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
