Raul, Yes, I agree your rank essay is excellent and typical of your explanations. I even saw there a trick you used in another recent post of using "+ in code where the next entry to the right would be a number, in order to separate that number from the numeric rank of 0.
Joe, et al, Along that same line, I found in the wiki a few examples of great examples, which to me promote array thinking. I don't think I can suggest in words general ideas on the level of Henry and Roger, for example, but I think these contributions are of value, also. http://www.jsoftware.com/jwiki/Puzzles/APL%20Idioms1 http://www.jsoftware.com/jwiki/DanBron/JnJ NB. this one may be too broad http://www.jsoftware.com/jwiki/PrimitivePrimitives On Fri, Jan 17, 2014 at 7:52 AM, Raul Miller <rauldmil...@gmail.com> wrote: > Have you seen the wikipedia entry on rank? > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rank_(J_programming_language) > > > > On Thu, Jan 16, 2014 at 11:37 PM, Joe Bogner <joebog...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Hi Ian - > > > > Thanks for the reply. I was more so interested in APL from the > > perspective of how to think in arrays or idioms of array programming. > > For example, Devon posted the old trick of counting > > parentheses/brackets yesterday. > > > > I'm getting there, but still feel like I'm approaching things from the > > wrong perspective sometimes. > > > > I don't see myself using a traditional APL. I am quite demotivated the > > non-ascii characters. I ask after learning LISP I found that the > > concepts applied to different interpreters. > > > > I stumbled upon this wiki post from you last night while researching, > > http://www.jsoftware.com/jwiki/APL2JPhraseBook, which encourages > > unlearning APL. If I were to make a poor metaphor, I took algebra > > based physics in college. I learned that there was a calculus based > > physics later and studied some if it on my own and realized how much > > simpler, or less repetitive at least to learn it would have been. To > > some degree, with J being a superset of APL, I can see why it would > > make sense to unlearn. I won't go down that rabbit hole here though... > > > > As Henry Rich said: practice, practice, practice is probably best. > > I've been on a good run of practicing every chance I get for probably > > five months now. I definitely appreciate the group's feedback on the > > public practice. All the other languages I've learned had some other > > person in my life that also knew it or learned it (aside from LISP, > > which has a fair amount of open source to learn from). It's difficult > > to learn if there's not an avenue for feedback. > > > > Since we're in programming, I'll post some code. I wanted to write > > something today that would take this string and produce this result: > > > > '=:' splitstring "1 > ',' splitstring > {. 'reads' splitstring > > 'foo=:baz,abc=:123 reads from q' > > ┌───┬────┐ > > │foo│baz │ > > ├───┼────┤ > > │abc│123 │ > > └───┴────┘ > > > > I still can't figure out why this doesn't work: > > > > '=:' splitstring each ',' splitstring > {. 'reads' splitstring > > 'foo=:baz,abc=:123 reads from q' > > ┌──────────┬───────────┐ > > │┌───┬────┐│┌────┬────┐│ > > ││foo│:baz│││abc=│123 ││ > > │└───┴────┘│└────┴────┘│ > > └──────────┴───────────┘ > > > > I can normally use each on boxed list of strings and have it operate > > as though it was a single string. > > > > So I stumble around trying bits and pieces out until something works. > > I suspect it has something to do with rank, which I understand at a > > high level when it's something I have explicit control over, > > http://csilo.com/!article?2013/10/15/J-rank-in-a-nutshell > > > > Roger posted mentioned an essay yesterday that is apropos: > > http://www.jsoftware.com/papers/perlis78.htm > > > > If you take a problem, even a very simple one, and give it to a class > > of 50 people to program in APL, there’s a very good chance that you’re > > going to get 35 to 40 different solutions. To some, that’s a horrible > > state of affairs. To me it indicates the language really has some > > power to it, some value; it’s just perfect for people, in a sense, to > > use who like to think originally, if possibly poorly, about things. > > > > I do think it's wonderful. I just want to get my solutions less on the > > fringe and more in the middle. Perhaps I'm getting there. > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > -- (B=) <-----my sig Brian Schott ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
