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pointfreeapltacit-programming

Write {(+/3<?⍵⍴6)×100÷⍵}1000 tacitly


Inspired by some Conor Hoekstra YouTube videos, I tried doing some baby steps in APL and also convert my small lines to point-free style. But for this (percentage of rolls of 4, 5, or 6 in 1000 die-6 rolls) I can't wrap my head around how to eliminate the omega before the reshape.

{(+/3<?⍵⍴6)×100÷⍵}1000


Solution

  • Let's take it step by step:

    {(+/3<?⍵⍴6)×100÷⍵}

    First we need to express every part of the function that uses the argument, as a function of the argument. The multiplication combines the two main parts:

    {+/3<?⍵⍴6}×{100÷⍵}

    In the rightmost part, {100÷⍵}, we need the argument. There are a couple of ways we can deal with this:

    1. We can use an identity function to represent it: 100÷⊢
    2. We can bind (a.k.a. curry) the left argument, 100, to the function ÷ yielding a monadic function: 100∘÷

    Let's take the last approach:

    {+/3<?⍵⍴6}×100∘÷

    In the left part, {+/3<?⍵⍴6}, we can do the same, but need to watch out for two things, and each can be dealt with in a few different ways:

    1. We have a constant, 6, as the rightmost part of our function.
      1. We can change the constant into a constant function: 6⍨
      2. We can commute (a.k.a. swap or switch) the arguments of and use an identity function: 6⍴⍨⊢
      3. We can bind the right argument, 6, to the function yielding a monadic function: ⍴∘6
    2. We have a monadic function, ?, in the middle.
      1. We can compose ? atop : ?⍤⍴
      2. We can compose ? beside <: <∘?

    Let's take the last approach for each problem:

    (+/3<∘?⍴∘6)×100∘÷

    This is a fully tacit equivalent to the monadic function {(+/3<?⍵⍴6)×100÷⍵}. However, there's one more trick we can use to eliminate the parenthesis. Since × is commutative, we can swap its arguments to put the more involved expression on the right:

    100∘÷×(+/3<∘?⍴∘6)

    However, now we have the problem of the monadic +/ in the middle. Observe that < sees a vector on the right and a scalar on the left. In the case of F/s G v for scalar functions F and G with scalar s and vector v the inner product s F.G v is equivalent, so we can combine the summation with the comparison as follows:

    100∘÷×3+.<∘?⍴∘6

    Alternatively, we can observer that summation is equivalent to evaluation in base 1 because the place values in base 1 are (…,12, 11, 10) = (…, 1, 1, 1) so if we have the list (…, c, b, a) and evaluate it as a number in base 1, we get:

    (… + c×12 + b×11 + a×10) =
    (… + c×1 + b×1 + a×10) =
    (… + c + b×1 + a×1) =
    (… + c + b + a)

    That is, the sum of our list. We can write this as:

    100∘÷×1⊥3<∘?⍴∘6