First draft of an article for eventual submission to VECTOR entitled "J In A Day".
http://www.jsoftware.com/jwiki/JinaDay It is "work-in-progress". It represents an "alpha" offering, not a "release" or "publication". It's aimed squarely at the APLer who doesn't know any J. There won't be many such on this list. But right now I'm keen to get the J right. The prevalent message to APLers coming to J is: un-learn everything you know about APL (it's not helpful) and learn J from first principles. I think this erects an unnecessary barrier to the dwindling(?) band of APLers ignorant of J. Of course the barriers may be there anyway. I recall my first exposure to J aroused antipathy in me. I can't quite remember why. A Kuhnian paradigm-shift may be inescapable--or at least the need for one. The article deliberately avoids being starry-eyed so as not to raise the APLer's hackles. But this is not meant as provocation to the J-er. There's a fairly defiant "admonition" (as MoinMoin calls it) to J experts -- but don't be put off. I would really appreciate your comments. So get your anoraks on... ;) Of course, if an APL-er knowing absolutely no J were to work through it, and confirm (or deny) it was of use to them... that would get me on like 7-league boots. BTW I use the J terms "proverb" and "pronoun" in it. I need to know if I'm using them correctly. See my separate posting. Thanks, Brian, for the Iverson ref. From the horse's mouth, so to speak. But Ken talks of "analogies", and seems to use the word "noun" to mean a value or quantity: the result of an expression, not the variable -- or named memory location -- it's stored in. What, in J, corresponds to an APL "variable"? Ian ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
