After reading "Algebra as Language" and "Computers and Mathematical Notation", I'm starting to see J the perfect language for numerical computation. But for general purpose programming I can see Dijkstra's point.
When APL was designed computers were seen largely as calculating machines. But by the 1970s GUIs were starting to be developed, and computers were being applied in areas where tensors were no longer adequate as the sole data structure. One thing general purpose programming languages must have is extensibility, and that J lacks. I'm trying to work out what the appropriate use cases are for J, and I think it's calculating with tensors. If you need more than tensors, or if you need more than calculation (e.g. GUIs), J is not a good choice. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
