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From: sam@kalessin.jpl.nasa.gov (Sam Sirlin)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.apl
Subject: Re: Graphics for J under X11
Message-ID: <1991Apr25.151215.224@jato.jpl.nasa.gov>
Date: 25 Apr 91 15:12:15 GMT
References: <1991Apr24.183906.14541@jato.jpl.nasa.gov> <24APR91.20363659@uc780.umd.edu>
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(regarding Raul Rockwell's points [rn's not as good as xrn])
I think your branch around initial comments won't stop the parser from
looking at the comment lines at the definition phase, so I suspect
that function definition would fail without matching ''s or maybe bad
tokens, though maybe you don't need a quoted string... It might also
run faster than just running through the quotes at each invocation...
On the other hand, I think any readable programming style should use
comments sprinkled throughout a program, and this would be contorted
using branching all the time. By making it cumbersome, J seems to be
designed to discourage comments. Backquote is a good idea for
contractions. 

Sam Sirlin
Jet Propulsion Laboratory         sam@kalessin.jpl.nasa.gov

Sam Sirlin
Jet Propulsion Laboratory         sam@kalessin.jpl.nasa.gov