Raul, I fully agree with everything you've said. Brian, Sorry for the link mangling. You have the correct link in your message.
On Sat, Feb 15, 2014 at 1:49 PM, Raul Miller <rauldmil...@gmail.com> wrote: > That was probably my fault. > > I tried to show him how I used J, not realizing that he had a very strong > preference for a different style of coding. > > :( > > -- > Raul > > > > On Sat, Feb 15, 2014 at 1:44 PM, Jim Russell <jimsruss...@yahoo.com> > wrote: > > > Someone recently linked to Ron Jeffery's blog re throwing in the towel on > > learning J. I developed a respect for Ron back when I hung out on Ward > > Cunningham's original Wiki. Ward once raved about J, even though he > thought > > he had fully "grok"ed it in a weekend or so. > > > > > On Feb 15, 2014, at 1:16 PM, Vijay Lulla <vijaylu...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > > > I came across > > > > > > http://waterstreetgm.org/throwing-in-the-towel-on-becomming-a-programmer/this > > > on HN. And > > > http://sdawncasey.wordpress.com/about/ in that page. Maybe these pages > > > might be useful to consider how newcomers take to concepts. These pages > > are > > > fascinating to me because it shows that even though these people have > had > > > prior experience with other languages they claim that they still don't > > > understand programming. IMO, the emphasis on concepts and how J/APL can > > aid > > > in these explorations is the best approach to teach programming. > Actually > > > Ken Iverson's explanation of Under (&.) [I read this on Ken Iverson's > > > Quotations page] is one of the best explanations of a very commonly > > > occurring programming idiom. > > > > > > > > > On Sat, Feb 15, 2014 at 12:51 PM, robert therriault > > > <bobtherria...@mac.com>wrote: > > > > > >> Hi Henry and Raul, > > >> > > >> I think that the audience being young programmers is a good start > > towards > > >> the issues that Raul raises. As an additional challenge, I think that > we > > >> would want to use an example that is user friendly once their interest > > has > > >> been attracted. There are some areas of J that have more overhanging > > >> learning curves than others :) I don't think we would want to get > them > > >> interested and then send them into the teeth of image processing > unless > > we > > >> also provided a good road map. > > >> > > >> Cheers, bob > > >> > > >>> On Feb 15, 2014, at 9:36 AM, Henry Rich <henryhr...@nc.rr.com> > wrote: > > >>> > > >>> My idea about that is, we need to appeal to young programmers. The > > more > > >> experience people have with scalar languages, the less able they are > to > > >> learn J. The more experience they have with other languages in a > class > > >> with J, the less they need to learn J. > > >>> > > >>> The application needs to be of obvious interest to a > non-mathematical, > > >> non-financial user. My target would be a scientist/engineer/IT person > > who > > >> has a computation to perform and no canned package to do it, so they > > have > > >> to write a little code. > > >>> > > >>> Henry Rich > > >>> > > >>>> On 2/15/2014 12:30 PM, Raul Miller wrote: > > >>>> Perhaps it is also worth noting that we are not going to impress > > >> everyone, > > >>>> nor should we want to. > > >>>> > > >>>> J currently caters to some high powered wallstreet types, high > quality > > >>>> engineering types and so on. But it's hardly the only language in > use > > >> for > > >>>> any of those categories. > > >>>> > > >>>> ... anyways we should probably think a bit about qualities of the > sort > > >> of > > >>>> people we think we want to attract with this video (or videos, since > > we > > >>>> might want to attract different kinds of people). > > >>>> > > >>>> I'd also be tempted to enlist Cathrine Lathwell's advice on video > > >> creation > > >>>> - she has more than a little relevant experience. > > >>>> > > >>>> Thanks, > > >>> > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > >>> 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 > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > 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
