Ian Clark's NuVoc project is a great start at making J easier for
newcomers. As part of that effort, the FrontPage of the Wiki now has a
section aimed at newcomers.
As Ian observed, a newcomer's first 5 minutes with J will be decisive in
establishing their attitude towards the language. As things stand, it
takes a serious geek to take a shine to J in 5 minutes. Just between us
geeks, I wish there were more of us, but that's not the way to bet.
No, we need a snappy demo: an application that everyone can relate to,
showing how we can code something meaningful and get a pretty display in
under 5 minutes. Ideally it should be a YouTube video, with an
accompanying Lab so the interested user can reproduce the results.
I call for somebody, or a small group, to produce /J in 5 Minutes/, the
demo that really makes the case for the language. The job requires
creative and production skills that I lack, but I will be willing to
write code to further the project.
Henry Rich
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