Re: [Bug-apl] scalar/array

[enztec]

thank you - fantastic ...it sure 'fixes' the inconsistency     i had no idea 
about "a"

I saw the use of " only in the FILE_IO   "r"  in the apl.html    but thought 
that was related to just fopen/bash/c syntax

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Do you know the 'details' about why iverson did this to begin with?

How did you deal with scalar 'a' before the "a" in gnuap? 

didn't you have 'wasted code'  to deal with the following   to deal with scalar 
'a'

      ⍴'a'

      ''=⍴'a'

      ⍴⍴'a'
0

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the video in case you hadn't seen it

# APL 1991 Conference.mpg   1 hour, 50 minutes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZOZYYPmUnM

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On Sat, 4 Mar 2017 01:37:18 +0800
Elias Mårtenson <address@hidden> wrote:

> In GNU APL, try this instead :
> 
> "a"[1]
> 
> The reason this seems inconsistent is because single quote is used to
> define a string, i.e. an array of characters. Except the case where there
> is only a single  character, in which case it represents a scalar
> character.
> 
> GNU APL allows you to use double quote instead which doesn't have this
> inconsistency.
> 
> That should make things a bit more clear, I hope.
> 
> Regards,
> Elias
> 
> On 4 Mar 2017 01:29, <address@hidden> wrote:
> 
> >
> > i just watched a great video on apl   and this was discussed    i still
> > don't know what the harm/problem would be if instead of returning 'nothing'
> >
> >       ⍴'a'                 why doesn't it return 1   - there is something
> > there    please don't mention scalar i know all about it - but to me this
> > has always been an inconsistency in apl that made no sense to me
> >
> >       ⍴'aa'               the ,   isn't required in   ⍴,'aa'    to be
> > consistent ??
> > 2
> >       ⍴,'a'
> > 1
> >
> >
> >       'a'[1]
> > RANK ERROR
> >       'a'[1]
> >       ^  ^
> >       'ab'[1]
> > a
> >       (,'a')[1]
> > a
> >
> >
> >
> > under what condition would   'a'[1]    returning 'a'  be a problem?
> >
> >