[Jprogramming] strange behavior in "take"

[Raul Miller]

On Sat, Jan 16, 2010 at 12:38 PM, Dan Bron <j at bron.us> wrote:
> Also, I just realized today that, at least for sorting & grading, empty is
> considered its own "type" (on par with numeric, literal, symbolic, boxed,
> etc).  In the Vocab entry for  /:  [1] we read:
>
>        The types: numeric or empty, symbol, literal (1 byte or 2 byte
>        characters), and boxed, are so ordered
...
> [1]  http://www.jsoftware.com/help/dictionary/d422.htm

I have been wondering if J should perhaps have nouns
with empty type.

If it did, and if a: was a box containing an array of this
type, then

fill=: {.a:

Then:
   #$fill
0
   $":fill
0
   fill+0
0
   '*',fill,'*"
* *
   3(2)}5 5$fill
0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0
3 3 3 3 3
0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0
   '#'(2)}5 5$fill


#####



And, so on...

An array of this empty type would not have a
shape but would not have any data.

But if a: were redefined, that might break some
existing code?

-- 
Raul