To think like a J programmer, write code to solve your problems using J
without loops. It's not so much that loops are evil, as that they
encourage scalar thinking. If you are forced to find J primitives to
express your ideas, you will eventually stop thinking about integers and
start thinking about nouns..
Don't go down the tacit-code rabbit hole. The big step is thinking
about your problem as a whole, rather than the minute scalar
computations needed to realize it. Explicit verbs are fine. Every so
often you will find a verb that is so cleanly defined, and so obviously
expressive of a fundamental idea, that it should be immortalized. Only
then should you make it tacit.
Practice, practice, practice.
Henry Rich
On 1/15/2014 8:32 PM, Joe Bogner wrote:
I went googling for some deeper material on how to think like an APL
programmer. I have read/skimmed through a good set of the material on
http://jsoftware.com/papers/ and have skimmed through many of the
books listed on http://www.jsoftware.com/jwiki/Books.
Are there any specific recommendations, free or for purchase? Or,
perhaps I should spend more time with the list above.
I found this, The APL Idiom List by Perlis and Rugaber, which looks
similar to what I'm looking for:
http://archive.vector.org.uk/resource/yaleidioms.pdf.
The review of this book looks like what I'm after,
http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-APL-programming-Clark-Wiedmann/dp/0884050262,
constructing useful programs and going into more depth.
Or something of the style of The Little Schemer,
http://scottn.us/downloads/The_Little_Schemer.pdf
I searched the forum and had trouble finding a relevant post
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