On Tue, January 5, 2010 11:26 am, Raul Miller wrote: > In my experience, you want to get people to the point > where they can do something interesting as fast as > you can. And then you need a path up, from there.
Thanks, Raul. I hear you. > Showing them how to use operations like i. and + can > be ok if they are interested in simple arithmetic, but > if they have some other domain they are interested in, > that might suggest some better starting points. Perhaps I should just give them a couple of wrapper verbs for tara and taraxml verbs so they can get data in from sources they use and then concentrate on calculations and graphs. What has attracted people so far is J's ability to deal with data scattered across multiple spreadsheets in possibly irregular formats plus J's ability to customize graphs as output. > That said, I would try to avoid projecting my own needs > and areas of concern onto newcomers. Keep things > simple. And, if you are working from a book, try and > find ways of making the book's contents relevant. Gotcha. > If you want to have them use Tara or JOD or whatever, > of course you should do so, but initially treat it as > a recipe -- they are going to have to learn a lot of > other things also, especially if they have to unlearn > some of their assumptions. In general, I can say I work with analysts but not programmers. That makes it easier in some ways, but they may not be ready for something as predefined as JOD. Thanks; that helps. Other thoughts? Bill ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
