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Origins of J

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Re: Origins of J

#3
Talked about this in other times (through other links):

* https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8533843 [2014]

* https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28491562 [2021]

* https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25902615 [2021]

* https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34050715 [2022]

A commentary about the code https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22831931 [2020]

Re: Origins of J

#4

“…and that’s why we have code formatters.” That’s neat and impressive. I’m glad I’m not required to read or understand it.

Once I put the effort to understand code like this and it turned out it's straightforward once you learn the conventions:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19421524

Re: Origins of J

#5

“…and that’s why we have code formatters.” That’s neat and impressive. I’m glad I’m not required to read or understand it.

It really doesn't help that it's written in ancient K&R C, but if you spend ten or so minutes just staring at it, familiar shapes and patterns start to appear. (Give it a try!)

Incidentally, it's in line with how APL code looks like an alien artifact at first, but you get used to it fast if you have spatial reasoning to wrap your head around reshaping and transposing.

Re: Origins of J

#7
I was expecting the story of the letter J, that Indiana Jones and the Holy Grail has taught me had appeared only in the 15th century as a letter separate than "I".

Re: Origins of J

#8
post #7

I was expecting the story of the letter J, that Indiana Jones and the Holy Grail has taught me had appeared only in the 15th century as a letter separate than "I".

And I was expecting the Outlook J smiley. Been a while since I've seen it in the wild now.

https://superuser.com/questions/1181497/text-smiley-faces-sh...

Re: Origins of J

#9
post #7

I was expecting the story of the letter J, that Indiana Jones and the Holy Grail has taught me had appeared only in the 15th century as a letter separate than "I".

I had the same thought . Maybe the title should be updated to better reflect this
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