Dear all, Thanks for the comments. I shall update the tutorial accordingly. My love for =. stems from an advice that I got from a C instructor: Always declare variables in the smallest scope possible.
Of course, I am not supposed to mix C philosophy with J philosophy... Thanks and regards, Arnab On Mon, Aug 26, 2019 at 9:18 PM Henry Rich <[email protected]> wrote: > Teaching raw beginners, I found it much easier to use =: everywhere. > When the time comes the savvy ones will see the value in =. . > > Henry Rich > > On 8/26/2019 11:44 AM, Raul Miller wrote: > > I have a couple comments. > > > > Well.. ok, there are a variety of alternate phrasings of these > > concepts. But those tie back to the exposition, so I'm going to be > > ignoring them here. > > > > That said: > > > > 1) For this audience (j newcomers) I would be strongly tempted to use > > dyad define instead of 4 : 0. (Specifically, the names 'adverb', > > 'conjunction', 'verb' or 'monad', and 'dyad' instead of the numbers 1, > > 2, 3 and/or 4 because I think the words show intent better. Also, I > > would be tempted to use the words 'define' and 'def' instead of their > > definitions.) > > > > 2) I would use =: for all stand-alone definitions. This is because =. > > definitions in a script vanish when you attempt to reference them > > outside of the script, and when teaching novices that's a likely > > stumbling block, and one that's difficult to ask about. ("Why doesn't > > it work?") But I would also use =. consistently inside defined blocks > > (unless I specifically was debugging) -- if I wanted to define a word > > which was useful outside that block, I'd move the definition out of > > the block and switch it back to a =: definition. Your word 'newline' > > might be an example of what I'd move outside the block. > > > > Then again, copy and paste inclinations suggest that maybe I should > > use =: consistently everywhere? .. I'm not sure... > > > > Anyways, I think your basic approach here is solid. Specifically, > > you're relying on domain knowledge outside the language, and choosing > > J phrasing which roughly fit that approach. > > > > Thanks, > > > > > --- > This email has been checked for viruses by AVG. > https://www.avg.com > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
