The Reflex/Commute Operator

The monadic operator is defined and modeled as follows:

     f⍨ ⍵  ←→  ⍵ f ⍵
   ⍺ f⍨ ⍵  ←→  ⍵ f ⍺

   {⍺←⍵ ⋄ ⍵ ⍺⍺ ⍺}

Reflex

Some common well-known functions can be written as f⍨ where f is itself a well-known function:

   +⍨    double
   ×⍨    square
   ?⍨    random permutation
   ⍳⍨    self-index, APL Amuse-Bouche 3

See http://www.jsoftware.com/jwiki/Essays/Reflexive for further examples.

Awareness of the importance of the reflexive case might have led us to avoid the mistake in the definition of the dyadic case of . That is, if

   ⍺⍋⍵ ←→ ⍺⌷⍨⊂⍋⍵

then ⍋⍨⍵ would be sort. Ken Iverson seemed to have had this awareness because that’s how he defined the dyadic case of in J. (I say “seemed” because he expressed surprise when first shown this use of ⍋⍨.)

The monadic case f⍨ came relatively late. It was not in Operators and Functions (1978) nor Rationalized APL (1983), and only introduced in A Dictionary of APL (1987). It came to Ken Iverson when he explicitly looked to natural languages for inspiration, whence it became “obvious”: f⍨⍵ ←→ ⍵ f ⍵ is the reflexive voice (je m’appelle Roger) and ⍺ f⍨ ⍵ ←→ ⍵ f ⍺ is the passive voice (the programming competition was won by a 17-year-old student vs. a 17-year-old student won the programming competition), both having evolved in natural languages for effective communication and elegant expression.

Commute

The alternative definition of ⍺⍋⍵ above, while illustrating the importance of the reflexive case (f⍨ ⍵), also illustrates the passive case (⍺ f⍨ ⍵). ⍺⌷⍨⊂⍋⍵ can be read and understood as “ indexed by the enclosed grade of “, a different (and in my mind a better) emphasis than (⊂⍋⍵)⌷⍺, “the enclosed grade of , indexed into “.

I note that Arianna Locatelli, winner of the 2015 APL Problem Solving Competition but an APL beginner, used twenty-one times in her presentation at Dyalog ’15. For example, was used in the computation of the standard deviation (slide 13):

   sol5←{a←,⍵ ⋄ ⊃0.5*⍨(⍴a)÷⍨+/2*⍨a-(⍴a)÷⍨+/a}

I believe this formulation comes naturally because can be used to write functions in the order that they are applied. Another way to put it is that reduces the need for long-scope parentheses. For example:

   (2×a) ÷⍨ (-b) (+,-) 0.5 *⍨ (b*2)-4×a×c
   ((-b) (+,-) ((b*2)-4×a×c)*0.5) ÷ 2×a

That is easy to implement, {⍺←⍵ ⋄ ⍵ ⍺⍺ ⍺}, is neither here nor there; its value as a tool of thought is easily demonstrated.