numbsafari parent
For a language focused on math… giving up the natural division operator for comments seems like a really weird sense of priorities.
Division in Goal is %
Reference: https://codeberg.org/anaseto/goal/raw/branch/master/docs/hel...
Playground: https://anaseto.codeberg.page/try-goal/#eJwyNFI1AQAAAP__AQAA...
APL-family languages have a long history of using the symbol / as "over"; a reduction adverb. The composition +/ for taking a sum is mutually intelligible in APL, J, K, and Goal. It's only a comment, in this case, if it is preceded by whitespace.
Is that not a pun on the use of "/" for division, and how it's often expressed in spoken English? It might still be a weird sense of priorities, but an historical one rather than a new one.
No, it stems from North American use of ÷ for division, which is then ASCIIfied to %.
I get that, but why is / "over"?
+/1 2 3 4 5
plus over 1 2 3 4 5
the plus reduction of 1 2 3 4 5
1+2+3+4+5
15
over can also be used with *
*/1 2 3 4 5
the product reduction of 1 2 3 4 5
120
> An operation (such as summation) which is applied to all components of a vector to produce a result of a simpler structure is called a reduction.
"/" is known as "insert" in J [2] and "over" in k dialects (like Goal)[3].
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APL_(programming_language)#Mat...
[1] https://www.softwarepreservation.org/projects/apl/Books/APRO...
also see
"/" as "over" in k reference (see Chapter 5)
http://www.nsl.com/k/k2/k295/kreflite.pdf
and "over" in the Q reference:
I wouldn't characterize languages in the K family as particularly focused on math. They have vectors, but do not have matrices or higher dimensional arrays, they don't have a built-in to compute factorials, binomial coefficients, roots of a polynomial or hypergeometric functions. And Ks do have dictionaries and tables. Maybe you're thinking of J or some dialects of APL?