This looks promising. I currently have two quibbles which you might want to reject:
First, the additional markup seems to get in the way for some typical cases. I can see the need for leading 1 dimensions and embedded zero dimensions. I understand the idea of consistent display of information, but there's so much going on when arrays have no zeros or ones in their shape and I can't help but wonder if a reduced complexity presentation might be nice, at least as a later option? Second, when there are zeros in the shape, the placeholders are the same size and "shape" (ha ha, get it? shape... eh... maybe you had to be there) as when data is present. Maybe you could shrink the cell size for empty cells? I should also probably watch it again for how you display boxed data. One of my worries is that with so much decoration on "flat" arrays that boxing will get lost in the noise. That said, from a user point of view, I can totally imagine wanting to be able to customize this, and I can also imagine not wanting to touch it and wanting it to lead me off to some other page that shows me how to reason about it, and I can also imagine wanting to take the data and wanting to play with it and render it in other ways. So I guess also there are plenty of opportunities for the future. If I were a manager, though, I might want you to ship it right now, the way it is. Fortunately, you don't have to please me. I do not know what I would want if I were just starting. We need more beginners, and maybe that is something we can do something about, over the next few weeks and months. Thanks, -- Raul On Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 10:21 AM, robert therriault <bobtherria...@mac.com>wrote: > Just an update on the visualization of J results. > > I have done a second video/blog post on using CSS and HTML to display > results on JHS. It provides examples of a system that allows you to > distinguish between 1 $ 1 , 1 1 $1 , and 1 as well as displaying arrays > with zeros in the shape such as 0 1 $ 1 and 1 0 $ 1. > > Blog post is here: > http://bobtherriault.wordpress.com/2014/02/11/using-css-and-html-to-display-the-shapes-of-arrays-on-the-jhs-platform/?relatedposts_exclude=513 > > Cheers, bob > > On Feb 4, 2014, at 8:25 AM, robert therriault <bobtherria...@mac.com> > wrote: > > > > > On Feb 4, 2014, at 5:29 AM, Raul Miller <rauldmil...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > >> > >> Of course you will also get an error if you try to combine one of > >> those with another array of the wrong shape. Error conditions are one > >> of the cases where I like getting the shapes of arrays. > >> > > > > Sometimes the zeros can affect the result even though they can't be seen > in the display > > > > $ ( 0 2 3 $ 4), 5 7 $5 > > 1 5 7 > > $ (0 0 2 3 $ 4), 5 7 $5 > > 1 1 5 7 > > > > I am looking for ways to give the programmer some 'leverage' into these > situations by the ways that shapes are displayed > > > >> One of my favorite tricks, if I am getting an error from an expression > >> that seems to be due to of a lack of shapeliness (like a length error) > >> is to replace the last verb with $ (or a variation like ;&$ or $&.> or > >> ;&($ L:0) or whatever else). > >> > >> And that brings up another issue related to finding the shapes of > >> things: the shape inside a box will typically be different from the > >> shape outside the box (these shapes are "independent" of each other). > > > > Yep, I am working on boxes at the moment and it is a challenge for > display while retaining the independent shape of contents. > > > >> Also, the shape of transitory arrays (intermediate results) can also > >> matter. So familiarity with debugging tools and techniques can be > >> crucial - sometimes even more important for coding than familiarity > >> with shape and rank issues. (These are not, properly speaking, a part > >> of the language itself so much as they are a part of the environment. > >> But that's something of a technicality.) > > > > No doubt. Display can't replace knowing how rank and shape work. I am > hoping that a little better way of displaying results will make it easier > to see the differences and may emphasize the importance of understanding > the concepts to those learning the language - that would be me! > > > > Cheers, bob > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > 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
