Launch j602... require 'files' edit 'freads' NB. (say) ...then RTFC
The old answers are the best. But we seem to have forgotten the questions. I see that in j801 "edit" is no longer defined, files.ijs has vanished into stdlib.ijs -- and the latter has lost its comments. Failure of anyone to complain about that sort of thing is a clear sign (to me) that J8 is, as yet, only addressing the needs of existing users. >Doesn't the J community care any more about such folks? I've been asking that sort of question for years. But I've reluctantly come to the conclusion it would take an army of full-time documenters to fix it, driven by a well-staffed Human Factors department, testing out J releases upon novice users. The sort of thing only a company the size of Microsoft can do. And still doesn't! Or a volunteer community the size of Python's. But failure to do it can't help but raise the entry bar for J newcomers, or rusty J old-timers. Most J-ers are writing new code, not revising old documentation. You can count the people prioritizing beginner-friendly documentation on the fingers of one thumb. But it only gets them the reputation of talking to animals when they should be walking with God. And maybe for all the effort the J community could put in... www.google.com/search?q=site:jsoftware.com+freads would remain the best thing to advise a beginner to do. On Mon, May 27, 2013 at 4:11 PM, Murray Eisenberg <[email protected]>wrote: > If such basic defined names are buried in stdlib.ijs, then how is a J > newcomer or rusty J old-timer supposed to find out about it? > > Doesn't the J community care any more about such folks? > > Murray > > On 26 May 2013 12:17:55 -0500, Tom Arneson <[email protected]> wrote: > > > The file verbs (fread, fwrite, f...) are defined in > > 'system/main/stdlib.ijs'. It is a file of 2500+ lines without any NB. > > comments > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: [email protected] > > [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Murray > Eisenberg > > Sent: Sunday, May 26, 2013 10:59 > > To: [email protected] > > Subject: [Jgeneral] Where is files.ijs and how get its documentation? > > > > In J801, where is files.ijs and how does one get its documentation? > > > > I did the following: > > > > load 'files' N.B. no error results > > load 'scriptdoc' > > scriptdoc 'files' > > -1 > > > > I searched for files.ijs but didn't find it. I looked on the j wiki at > > http://www.jsoftware.com/jwiki/JAL/j701 but didn't find anything about > it > > there. > > > > Is there some documentation somewhere on such basic defined functions as > in > > files.ijs? Where? (And how is a user supposed to find it???) > > --- > Murray Eisenberg [email protected] > Mathematics & Statistics Dept. > Lederle Graduate Research Tower phone 413 549-1020 (H) > University of Massachusetts 413 545-2838 (W) > 710 North Pleasant Street fax 413 545-1801 > Amherst, MA 01003-9305 > > > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
