From 2db444439b7dc3662fd006b56ae88b73d7eb4e4f Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Marshall Lochbaum Date: Sun, 24 Jan 2021 21:25:06 -0500 Subject: BQN-J dictionary --- docs/index.html | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) (limited to 'docs/index.html') diff --git a/docs/index.html b/docs/index.html index c9ca4633..f324cd68 100644 --- a/docs/index.html +++ b/docs/index.html @@ -55,7 +55,7 @@

How do I get started?

Writing good learning material for a programming language is a pretty huge task, so neither the tutorials nor the documentation are complete. With some willingness to experiment and possibly outside knowledge of array programming, it's enough to get by, just not smooth sailing.

BQN's tutorials are intended as an introduction to array programming with BQN. They assume only knowledge of elementary mathematics, but will probably be hard to follow if you have no programming experience. BQN has a lot in common with dynamically-typed functional languages like Lisp, Julia, or Javascript, so knowledge of these languages will be particularly helpful. However, there's a significant (but shrinking) gap between the last tutorial and existing documentation. If you're motivated, you may be able to get across by reading material on other array languages like APL, J, NumPy, or Julia.

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If you're already an array programmer, then you're in better shape: the current documentation covers nearly all differences from APL, and the BQN-Dyalog APL dictionary might also be a useful resource. However, you should be aware of two key differences between BQN and existing array languages beyond just the changes of primitives—if these differences don't seem important to you then you don't understand them! BQN's based array model is different from both a flat array model like J and a nested one like APL2, Dyalog, or GNU APL in that it has true non-array values (plain numbers and characters) that are different from depth-0 scalars. BQN also uses syntactic roles rather than dynamic type to determine how values interact, that is, what's an argument or operand and so on. This system, along with lexical closures, means BQN fully supports Lisp-style functional programming.

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If you're already an array programmer, then you're in better shape: the current documentation covers nearly all differences from APL, and the BQN-Dyalog APL or BQN-J dictionary might also be a useful resource. However, you should be aware of two key differences between BQN and existing array languages beyond just the changes of primitives—if these differences don't seem important to you then you don't understand them! BQN's based array model is different from both a flat array model like J and a nested one like APL2, Dyalog, or GNU APL in that it has true non-array values (plain numbers and characters) that are different from depth-0 scalars. BQN also uses syntactic roles rather than dynamic type to determine how values interact, that is, what's an argument or operand and so on. This system, along with lexical closures, means BQN fully supports Lisp-style functional programming.

A useful tool for both beginners and experienced users is BQNcrate, a searchable collection of BQN snippets to solve particular tasks. If you have a question about how you might approach a problem, give it a try by typing in a relevant keyword or two.

Where can I find BQN users?

Most BQN users are active on the APL Orchard forum. If you (like me) don't have a Stack Overflow or Stack Exchange account with a few points you'll have to send an email to get forum access; see the instructions in the room description. You can also chat there by IRC: a bot mirrors messages back and forth to the #apl freenode channel. The Matrix channel #apl:matrix.org is similarly linked.

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