I am getting bored of studying J. Doing applied J via the alioth benchmarks was fun, but I dont think it is cool to ask questions that are covered in thorough introductory texts like "Learning J"
So here are my issues: * I am not good enough to do anything practical with J * I am too bored to keep reading sterile teaching material * I am concerned that J is not easily parallelizable. Otherwise, it probably would've taken first place from Cilk in the '98 ICFP contest. * I can do whatever I need re: the web, data processing with Perl and Python. And most people on Planet Earth are doing so. And the most dollar bills are available in the most jobs in the most places on the earth doing so. Anyway, here is why I like J: * conciseness - this is the point above all points... who could ask for more in a language than getting the most done with the least effort? If a fulcrum can lift a truck simply by being long enough, we have found the fulcrum of computer programming in the APL-like languages, no? * analogy to human language - nouns, verbs, gerunds, adverbs, N.B., copula * smart people use J: Dan Bron, Raul Miller, Roger Hui, etc. * odd people use J: you meet some very unusual people in the mailing list... very different people. * Mysticism - I have a past interest in symbols which have underlying meaning - kabbalah, parables, hieroglyphics, cuneiform, crop circles, etc. J is the most mystical and esoteric language out there. To summarize - * Most people devote time and energy to perceivable payoff. Drupal is the king of website building for a long time to come. I dont need J for that. Perl/Python have tons of libraries for data processing. I dont need J for that. Java has tons of graphical and technical applications (for example, I plan to use WEKA for Data Mining... sure the WEKA source code could be 10% as large if it were written in J, but it is not written in J and I dont have time/interest in translating it). * Programming as a hobby is about to come to a grinding halt. I need to find a wife, meditation practice, outdoor activity or something. But after work, you are not going to find me indoors in the dark with a computer after spending 8 hours at work indoors in the dark with a computer. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
