Bob wrote > when languages such as J do not use a variety of media, such as video, to distribute their information, they run the risk of being perceived as being behind the times.
Let me just revisit a topic I dismissed a bit too curtly in my last post: a consistent set of animated graphics for every page of NuVoc. I must admit to having a low boredom threshold where training videos are concerned. A good training movie for me is a snappy one. More of a commercial than a TV program. The rest are a highly inefficient use of my precious time. Apple has taken the point these days with its getting-started movies, that is, in the most recent ones I've watched. Nearer 5 seconds than 5 minutes. I don't feel like I'm being tommy-gunned. Just getting a single bullet where it does the most good (to mess with a metaphor). It comes down to targeting. But there is a place for *Illustration*, and that's a different ball-game. As my daughter (an illustrator) tells me, a set of illustrations for a book has to be both pervasive and consistent. If NuVoc is the book, then every webpage needs an illustration, and they must all be in the same style. Back to the tommy-gun, it seems. But where a target can't be reliably identified, the tommy-gun does have its merits. Now Illustration can be more than mere decoration. Right now I'm listening to Prof Thad A Polk in "The Learning Brain" (The Great Courses series). He's just told me about experiments to prove that we have much better retention of visual images than we do of words – and the more striking or emotionally charged the image, the better for its retention. He endorses the saying: a picture is worth 1000 words. Some authors have estimated it's more like 7 words, but Polk says it's not just a matter of bandwidth, but stickiness too. NuVoc would be brightened-up – and come up with the times – with a full set of animated GIFs, all in the same style. A GIF need only be 20 frames long, so maybe this isn't a Sistine Chapel commission. Now GIF stands in here for any simple illustration, which is what I'm offering justification for. But a GIF brings an added dimension to a static diagram, viz. animation, to invite attention; to focus attention; and to portray change without cluttering the picture with arrows. So what am I thinking of? Remember the two-headed SWAP-dragon? A famous manual by Leo Brodie was "Starting FORTH" – an itty-bitty language that risked a really boring treatment. But "Starting FORTH" was anything but. It maybe did as much to win new enthusiasts as it did to inform the already committed. https://1scyem2bunjw1ghzsf1cjwwn-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Starting-FORTH.pdf (…thank-you Google) "Starting FORTH" is prodigal with images. Lightning doodles, yes, but from an artist's pen. I'm not thinking of so many for NuVoc, and maybe a bit more formalized and less fanciful. Just one for each page (or monad/dyad section). And the GIF would sit up *above* the "More Information" line, perhaps as part of the stylized header. Just one grouse about GIFs. I hate it when they go tick-tock tick-tock when the page first appears. After cycling once, they ought to await my mouse-click to repeat their cycle. Ian Clark On Mon, 27 May 2019 at 06:05, 'robert therriault' via Chat < [email protected]> wrote: > 'Where is this going' is a great question Don and one that I am not sure > that > I have an answer for. Videos are a lot of work (I wish that the ratio was > one > hour of work for a minute of video, reality is about 10 hours a minute, if > you include > scripting and design). > > I also think that when languages such as J do not use a variety > of media, such as video, to distribute their information, they run the > risk of being perceived as > being behind the times. You and I both know that this is not true and in > fact many of the > concepts integral to the language are far more advanced than the 'next big > things', but > perception does carry weight and videos may change the perception for > important populations. > > I suppose that I am watching to see where the community sees the value of > the videos. I have > my own ideas and these experiments reveal a few, but what I find most > exciting is the > context and the ideas that resonate with the community in ways that I did > not anticipate. > > What I have now is some time and some tools and a curiosity to see where > it goes. > > Cross posted to chat as I find my thoughts drift from programming. > > Cheers, bob > > > On May 26, 2019, at 7:26 AM, Don Guinn <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > So, where is this going? > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
