From 9b8eb9b4a8aead2d75f159ddedec5495ebf6043d Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Marshall Lochbaum Date: Sat, 14 Nov 2020 22:51:16 -0500 Subject: Regenerate main index.html to fix link --- 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 9a88ee71..add8bb63 100644 --- a/docs/index.html +++ b/docs/index.html @@ -51,7 +51,7 @@

More snippets are programmed into the live demo at the top of the page: hit the arrow at the right of the code window to see them. For longer samples, you can gaze into the abyss that is the self-hosted compiler, or the shallower but wider abyss of the runtime, or take a look at the friendlier markdown processor used to format and highlight documentation files. This repository also has some translations from "A History of APL in 50 Functions".

How do I work with the character set?

I type the special characters using a backslash escape, so that, for example, typing \ then z writes ⥊ (the backslash character itself is not used by BQN). The online REPL supports this method out of the box, and this repository also has scripts to support it, along with the standard syntax highlighting and indentation, in Vim and Kakoune. When starting out, it may be easier to use the bar above the REPL: hover over a character to see a short description, and click to insert it into the editor. Finally, on Linux this configuration file for XKB can be used to allow typing glyphs with a modifier key system-wide.

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As for fonts, take a look at this comparison page. Few existing monospace fonts support all the BQN characters (double-struck letters like 𝕩 are a particular sticking point), which can cause these characters to be rendered with a fallback font and have the wrong width or look inconsistent. Two fonts modified to support BQN are available currently. This site uses a modified DejaVu Sans Mono, and another, more playful option is BQN386 (demo). Existing font Fairfax HD has excellent BQN support, but be careful not to confuse single quote (') with the smaller acute accent (´). Julia Mono also supports all BQN characters, but with varying styles and weights.

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As for fonts, take a look at this comparison page. Few existing monospace fonts support all the BQN characters (double-struck letters like 𝕩 are a particular sticking point), which can cause these characters to be rendered with a fallback font and have the wrong width or look inconsistent. Two fonts modified to support BQN are available currently. This site uses a modified DejaVu Sans Mono, and another, more playful option is BQN386 (demo). Existing font Fairfax HD has excellent BQN support, but be careful not to confuse single quote (') with the smaller acute accent (´). Julia Mono also supports all BQN characters, but with varying styles and weights.

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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