I had a little brain fart this morning. What might it mean to assign
direct definition forms?
In current J we have the ugly but extremely useful form:
'this stuff gets array items'=: arr
The names get parsed in the string and assigned corresponding array items.
This has been in J forever and is so handy we tolerate the hideous QUOTED
code.
Suppose:
{{this stuff gets array items}}=: arr
No more ugly quoted code. But why stop there, consider a general DD with
unbound names.
{{this * that ^ more}}=: arr
One way to approach this is to treat the names in the DD like a regular J
expression accessing global names in it's namespace.
The names are bound by matching corresponding names with array items, just
like the current 'this that more'=: array, and then the expression is
evaluated as always.
This opens up a world of possibilities like:
{{+/a * b % c ^ d - e}}=. {{5 # this * that ^ more}}=: arr
This is only a slight generalization of what's already in J. I'm not
suggesting immediate implementation - just curious as to what others may
think.
--
John D. Baker
[email protected]
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