I would be a huge fan of having standard library documentation. I agree that documentation would probably be longer than the code itself, but the time needed to read it would not. Size is not so much an issue anymore with the terabyte disks we have nowadays, the time we need to soak up all information we encounter, is.
I've been struggling with a few things (eg. a base library update messing up the android app, viewmat not showing RGB images etc etc) Not finding what I needed on the website, I turned to the source code to ... find no documentation either. Things that can (should) be done : - continue in the NuVoc spirit (excellent accessible resource) - have a documentation guideline for libraries, and motivating people to use it in their own work - document the source code We could make a wiki page to coordinate the effort and list the documentation status of libraries/files so everyone feeling like it can start writing docs. Better documentation makes the language better accessible for newbies. Kind regards, Jan-Pieter 2014/1/20 Don Guinn <dongu...@gmail.com> > There is so much in the z locale that's not documented. The trouble is that > the documentation would be many times the size of the definitions. Many one > liners would require a paragraph or more to explain for a newbe. What to > do? NuVoc is great. Maybe we can do that for z and other locals sometime in > the future. > > > On Mon, Jan 20, 2014 at 2:35 PM, Devon McCormick <devon...@gmail.com> > wrote: > > > His point is that he cannot find reference to this in the documentation. > > > > > > On Mon, Jan 20, 2014 at 2:06 PM, Don Guinn <dongu...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > > exit is already defined in the z locale. > > > > > > > > > On Mon, Jan 20, 2014 at 11:31 AM, Devon McCormick <devon...@gmail.com > > > >wrote: > > > > > > > This is a good point and it's been brought up before. I define > > > > q=: 2!:55 > > > > and enter > > > > q'' > > > > to exit J but it's not standard. We should probably make "exit" more > > > > accessible. > > > > > > > > > > > > On Mon, Jan 20, 2014 at 1:23 PM, Blake McBride <bl...@mcbride.name> > > > wrote: > > > > > > > > > Greetings, > > > > > > > > > > Just providing some feedback.... > > > > > > > > > > The fist thing I wanted to know when I started J was how to exit. > I > > > did > > > > > some research and discovered 2!:55. I then defined a verb and used > > > that > > > > to > > > > > exit. Therefore, in order to get a clean way to exit a new > > language, I > > > > had > > > > > to learn what a verb is, what system verbs were available, how to > > > define > > > > > it, and how to load it. (I know about ^d but think that is hardly > a > > > > clean > > > > > way to exit.) > > > > > > > > > > Now, years later, I discover the pre-defined verb 'exit'. I > checked > > > the > > > > > docs, especially "Learning J". There is no mention of 'exit'! > > > > > > > > > > As someone who has played with many languages over the years, and > in > > > fact > > > > > an author of one, I respectfully suggest updating chapter 1 of > > > Learning J > > > > > to tell the user how to exit. Making a research project out of the > > > first > > > > > obvious desire is an unnecessary impediment to a language > acquision. > > > > > > > > > > Additionally, since I discovered 'exit', a comprehensive dictionary > > of > > > > > pre-defined verbs would be very helpful. (I know about z, etc.) > > > > > > > > > > Thanks. Just some thoughts... > > > > > > > > > > Blake McBride > > > > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > > > For information about J forums see > > http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > > > Devon McCormick, CFA > > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > > For information about J forums see > http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > > > > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > Devon McCormick, CFA > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > 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
