Roger Hui <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > x!y in J has the same argument order as every > APL that I know of. The description in "The > Design of APL" has a typo -- it should have said > n!m .
> > One thing about J that I was always curious about was that > > when I first encounteed APL around 1970, in X!Y, X was typically > > the larger argument, but in J, the parameter order has been > > reversed. > > > > At first I questioned my memory, but the above article does > > mention that ordering. I am curious why the order was changed? My memory of this argument order is very strong, but every piece of evidence I can find (including just digging up a copy of APL\1130 and running it under an emulator) confirms the current J ordering, so I have to conclude that I learned it wrong in the first place, and have been been labouring under a false assumption for almost 4 decades :) (By the way, I do think that the "standard" ordering makes more sense than the backwards order that I remember, since it follows the elegant symmetry that (!y) -: (1!y) similar to many other J verbs). -- Mark D. Niemiec <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
