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authorMarshall Lochbaum <mwlochbaum@gmail.com>2021-08-06 14:08:49 -0400
committerMarshall Lochbaum <mwlochbaum@gmail.com>2021-08-06 14:08:49 -0400
commit06b5904e470b5295a6f09b6f85f21cb8172e13be (patch)
tree557ba8e908937e52d36e78b8b458b228469e5fbf /docs/doc
parenta2a5c7e9b242a8d5f3727e8c8e1b0e8f76de82e0 (diff)
class -> role in a few places
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diff --git a/docs/doc/context.html b/docs/doc/context.html
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<pre><span class='Value'>b</span><span class='Paren'>(</span><span class='Value'>a</span><span class='Separator'>,</span> <span class='Value'>d</span><span class='Paren'>(</span><span class='Value'>c</span><span class='Paren'>)(</span><span class='Value'>e</span><span class='Paren'>))</span>
<span class='Paren'>(</span><span class='Value'>b</span> <span class='Value'>a</span> <span class='Paren'>((</span><span class='Value'>d</span> <span class='Value'>c</span><span class='Paren'>)</span> <span class='Value'>e</span><span class='Paren'>))</span>
</pre>
-<p>In each case, some values are used as inputs to functions while others are the functions being applied. The result of a function can be used either as an input or as a function again. These expressions correspond to the APL expression where <code><span class='Value'>a</span></code> and <code><span class='Value'>e</span></code> are arrays, <code><span class='Value'>b</span></code> and <code><span class='Value'>c</span></code> are functions, and <code><span class='Value'>d</span></code> is a monadic operator. However, these syntactic classes have to be known to see what the APL expression is doing—they are a form of context that is required for a reader to know the grammatical structure of the expression. In a context-free grammar like that of simple C or Lisp expressions, a value's grammatical role is part of the expression itself, indicated with parentheses: they come after the function in C and before it in Lisp. Of course, a consequence of using parentheses in this way is having a lot of parentheses. BQN uses a different method to annotate grammatical role:</p>
+<p>In each case, some values are used as inputs to functions while others are the functions being applied. The result of a function can be used either as an input or as a function again. These expressions correspond to the APL expression where <code><span class='Value'>a</span></code> and <code><span class='Value'>e</span></code> are arrays, <code><span class='Value'>b</span></code> and <code><span class='Value'>c</span></code> are functions, and <code><span class='Value'>d</span></code> is a monadic operator. However, these syntactic roles have to be known to see what the APL expression is doing—they are a form of context that is required for a reader to know the grammatical structure of the expression. In a context-free grammar like that of simple C or Lisp expressions, a value's grammatical role is part of the expression itself, indicated with parentheses: they come after the function in C and before it in Lisp. Of course, a consequence of using parentheses in this way is having a lot of parentheses. BQN uses a different method to annotate grammatical role:</p>
<pre><span class='Value'>a</span> <span class='Function'>B</span> <span class='Function'>C</span> <span class='Modifier'>_d</span> <span class='Value'>e</span>
</pre>
<p>Here, the lowercase spelling indicates that <code><span class='Value'>a</span></code> and <code><span class='Value'>e</span></code> are to be treated as subjects (&quot;arrays&quot; in APL) while the uppercase spelling of variables <code><span class='Function'>B</span></code> and <code><span class='Function'>C</span></code> are used as functions and <code><span class='Modifier'>_d</span></code> is a 1-modifier (&quot;monadic operator&quot;). Like parentheses for function application, the spelling is not inherent to the variable values used, but instead indicates their grammatical role in this particular expression. A variable has no inherent spelling and can be used in any role, so the names <code><span class='Value'>a</span></code>, <code><span class='Function'>A</span></code>, <code><span class='Modifier'>_a</span></code>, and <code><span class='Modifier2'>_a_</span></code> all refer to exact same variable, but in different roles; typically we use the lowercase name to refer to the variable in isolation—all values are nouns when speaking about them in English. While we still don't know anything about what values <code><span class='Value'>a</span></code>, <code><span class='Value'>b</span></code>, <code><span class='Value'>c</span></code>, and so on have, we know how they interact in the line of code above.</p>