Re: [stack] lambda the ultimate: advantages of pointfree?

John Nowak wrote:
> J programmers try to keep programs tacit, Factor programmers try to  
> avoid locals... is this just some silly game or is there a reason for  
> it?

John, I don't know. Sorry.

I helped start this group because I hoped to learn why concatenative
languages were fun to program in even though the only one I knew
thoroughly (Forth) was so amazingly primitive.

I do know that using variables *gets in the way* somehow -- and Forth
wasn't my first language, so I'm not just saying that because I'm only
accustomed to point-free code.

I know I also get a good feeling when working with applicative languages
and passing an expression to a function ... but after some nesting that
doesn't work anymore, and although one can make the code work by
assigning the result to a variable the feeling's gone, gone, gone. In
comparison, doing the equivalent in Forth (consigning the offending
complex code to a word of its own) doesn't change the feel.

I suspect working point-free in FP has a similar feel. I know working in
J's tacit mode did, but I didn't ever get the feeling that J's tacit
mode had anything near the applicability of Forth (i.e. it seemed that
most people wouldn't recommend using it for everything); although I'm an
admitted novice, so perhaps I simply don't _know_ how to work in it.

> - \x. john x

-Wm