Jan-Pieter, I like that file format a lot. Like JSON, it’s human- and machine-readable. Further, a “slightly smart” editor (here I’m thinking perhaps of emacs macros) could toggle between it (one token per line with comments) and a conventional view (all tokens on one line, no comments). A much smarter editor might have other, more sophisticated display/edit formats that would show both tokens and comments.
Ed Sent from my iPad > On Apr 28, 2022, at 8:49 AM, Jan-Pieter Jacobs <janpieter.jac...@gmail.com> > wrote: > > I actually was intending for quite a while to propose an extension to > comments along the lines of the suggestions in this thread: > to use ... as line continuation indicator that turns everything after it up > to and including the next line break to be considered comment, and still > considers the line to continue (Matlab does this the same, IIRC). It could > be thought of as a non-line-breaking version of NB. . > > For instance (silly example): > > avg =: ... averag operator > +/ ... sum > % ... divided by > # ... length > > Now, it's certainly overkill for this tiny example, but I think it could be > valuable for longer trains. > > Advantages of ... : > - not in use at the moment > - clear meaning (i.e. more code to follow) > - fits in with J word formation rules > - easy for communication to non-J experts > - length the same as NB. > > Jan-Pieter > >> On Thu, 28 Apr 2022, 08:16 Hauke Rehr, <hauke.r...@uni-jena.de> wrote: >> >> The LEO editor might be a good fit. >> And yes, it’s really freaking (cool). >> A script could generate the actual .ijs from snippets that are well >> documented and those snippets may well be single J tokens. >> >>> Am 28.04.22 um 08:10 schrieb Ed Gottsman: >>> LOL. Fair question. Here’s another: if J adopted a style standard >> around ideograms (which are rendered vertically by default) for comments, >> would that on the one hand slightly increase (as a percentage) its >> reputation for obscurity among Western programmers but on the other >> dramatically increase its penetration in China (an enormous market)? >>> >>> Seriously: I’m an amateur and maybe this goes away with expert status, >> but my own J is no longer readable-at-a-glance after a day or two. I’ve >> often wondered whether a J-friendly editor could act as a crutch* in that >> regard. Most programming languages are line-oriented in the sense that one >> comment per line is adequate. J is token-oriented in that each character >> speaks volumes and may deserve its own annotation. Typical (line-oriented) >> editors aren’t set up to support that gracefully. (I’m not telling you >> anything you don’t know; I imagine this discussion has come up before.) >>> >>> And, no, I don’t know what such an editor would look like beyond saying >> that it would be really freaking cool. As Wally once told the >> Pointy-Haired Boss, “It’s my job angrily to point out problems!” (Though >> to be clear, I’m actually perfectly happy. If I really can’t understand >> what I wrote, I just rewrite it from scratch. :-) ) >>> >>> Ed >>> >>> *Crutch n. A thing used for support or reassurance. May hold you back >> in the long term. >>> >>> Ed >>> >>> Sent from my iPad >>> >>>> On Apr 27, 2022, at 7:01 PM, Hauke Rehr <hauke.r...@uni-jena.de> wrote: >>>> >>>> What keeps you from writing your comments vertically‽ >>>> >>>>> Am 27.04.22 um 14:50 schrieb Ed Gottsman: >>>>> If J were written vertically, it might be easier to comment. >>>> >>>> -- >>>> ---------------------- >>>> mail written using NEO >>>> neo-layout.org >>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >>>> For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm >>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >>> For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm >> >> -- >> ---------------------- >> mail written using NEO >> neo-layout.org >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >> For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm >> > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
