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diff --git a/docs/context.html b/docs/context.html index 75d55842..201be8ab 100644 --- a/docs/context.html +++ b/docs/context.html @@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ <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> <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 values ("arrays" 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 modifier ("monadic operator"). 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='Composition'>_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. 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> +<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 values ("arrays" 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 modifier ("monadic operator"). 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='Composition'>_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. 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> <h2 id="is-grammatical-context-really-a-problem-">Is grammatical context really a problem?</h2> <p>Yes, in the sense of <a href="../problems.md">problems with BQN</a>. A grammar that uses context is harder for humans to read and machines to execute. A particular difficulty is that parts of an expression you don't yet understand can interfere with parts you do, making it difficult to work through an unknown codebase.</p> <p>One difficulty beginners to APL will encounter is that code in APL at first appears like a string of undifferentiated symbols. For example, a tacit Unique Mask implementation <code><span class='Value'>⍳⍨</span><span class='Function'>=</span><span class='Value'>⍳</span><span class='Composition'>∘</span><span class='Function'>≢</span></code> consists of six largely unfamiliar characters with little to distinguish them (in fact, the one obvious bit of structure, the repeated <code><span class='Value'>⍳</span></code>, is misleading as it means different things in each case!). Simply placing parentheses into the expression, like <code><span class='Paren'>(</span><span class='Value'>⍳⍨</span><span class='Paren'>)</span><span class='Function'>=</span><span class='Paren'>(</span><span class='Value'>⍳</span><span class='Composition'>∘</span><span class='Function'>≢</span><span class='Paren'>)</span></code>, can be a great help to a beginner, and part of learning APL is to naturally see where the parentheses should go. The equivalent BQN expression, <code><span class='Function'>⊐</span><span class='Modifier'>˜</span><span class='Function'>=↕</span><span class='Composition'>∘</span><span class='Function'>≠</span></code>, will likely appear equally intimidating at first, but the path to learning which things apply to which is much shorter: rather than learning the entire list of APL primitives, a beginner just needs to know that superscript characters like <code><span class='Modifier'>˜</span></code> are modifiers and characters like <code><span class='Composition'>∘</span></code> with unbroken circles are compositions before beginning to learn the BQN grammar that will explain how to tie the various parts together.</p> |