Do you mean like http://www.jsoftware.com/help/dictionary/vocabul.htm?
Thanks, -- Raul On Sun, Feb 9, 2014 at 7:06 PM, Jim Russell <[email protected]> wrote: > I suspect that a glossary of J (and related programming terms) would help a > great deal. Or does one exist? > >> On Feb 9, 2014, at 1:30 AM, Skip Cave <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> I was looking over NuVoc the other day, and thinking how it helped me learn >> the J primitives. My next thought was how I wished that we could fix the J >> search engine so that when newbies searched for stuff in the J wiki using >> traditional programming lingo, they would automatically find the J >> equivalent functions. >> >> When J gave new names to all the J programming elements, it was all for >> good reasons. However that made it really hard to learn J by searching the >> wiki for programming concepts, using common programming names. When I am >> programming in J, I often come to a point where I know what I want to do, >> and I know what most other programming languages would call what I want to >> do. If I search for that name in the J wiki though, I usually come up >> empty-handed. >> >> What we really need in NuVoc, as well as all of the J doc, is a set of >> common-use keywords attached to every J concept. Thus if a newbie searches >> for "assignment", he will get the vocabulary and dictionary pages for Is >> (local) and Is (global), When he searches for "indexing" he will get the >> Catalog pages. I could go on like this for quite awhile. >> >> Also when newbies or anyone stumbles upon a new concept in any of the J >> doc, we should make it easy for that person to add new keywords to that doc >> page. Hopefully the keywords they add will make it easier for the next >> person to find that concept in the future. >> >> So my proposal is that each NuVoc page (and all J doc pages for that >> matter) needs a list of keywords at (say) the bottom of the page, giving >> common programming names for the J concept on that page. In that way, a >> newbie searching for "assignment" would at least have a chance of finding >> what he is looking for. >> >> However, my idea is more that just putting a list of keywords on every doc >> page, As has been discussed on the J mail list, Newbies who are trying to >> learn J, know what they are looking for, when they search for a particular >> concept. What If we could make it so when someone finally does find what >> they were looking for, they could easily add words to the keyword list on >> the doc page they found. They could add the words that they were using to >> (unsuccessfully) search for that concept. Then each doc page would start to >> collect keywords that people commonly use for that concept, making it much >> easier for newbies (and even casual J user oldies like me) to find that >> concept in the future. >> >> There needs to be an easy (but controlled, and perhaps curated) way to put >> a new keyword on any doc page, while that page is being viewed. There needs >> to be a brief statement above the keyword block explaining what it is, how >> to add a keyword, and why one should do it. >> >> I believe that in the long run, this keyword scheme could have a bigger >> impact on reducing the "steep learning curve" of J than almost any other >> documentation mechanism. >> >> Skip >> >> Skip Cave >> Cave Consulting LLC >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >> For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
