> In J you transform your data, step after step, squeezing the solution out of them.
In APL, what flashes through your mind is a cascade of operations: chasing data through arrays, out of the other end of which come — limping and bruised, you know — seven numbers. After having built up arrays of rank eight and coming perilously close to a workspace full out from the other end come these seven numbers — and they’re pulled out almost painfully — and you say to yourself, “My God, that’s wonderful! That’s a mechanism!” Alan Perlis, 1978 <http://www.jsoftware.com/papers/perlis78.htm> On Sat, Mar 8, 2014 at 1:29 PM, EelVex <eel...@gmail.com> wrote: > I've found J is a powerful *thinking tool* like no other. > In Python, R, Ruby and others you're writing an algorithm to solve the > problem at hand. > In J you transform your data, step after step, squeezing the solution out > of them. > > > On Sat, Mar 8, 2014 at 10:00 PM, Yike Lu <yikelu.h...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > Re: Raul's point about harsh self criticism, I don't think any of this so > > far has been overly harsh. I certainly didn't mean my comment about the > > music to be much, other than an observation, perhaps a recommendation for > > the next time. > > > > Re: rest of the comments. Remember as far as "code beauty" and usability, > > the competition is no longer C++ or Java. > > > > It's Python (with numpy, which is also relatively loopless and satisfies > > the super calculator aspect), R, and Ruby essentially. Both are > > interactive, interpreted. The disadvantage is that things are either slow > > or awkward to speed up (numpy is essentially C with a wrapper, and > anything > > fast in R is essentially C level as well). All of these are somewhat > kludgy > > and verbose, but they are a huge improvement over the past generation, > and > > most importantly they do the job required, and very well. > > > > TouchQuery looks really cool, but it's not a killer app, it's a great > tool. > > I mean -- have you ever switched to a language because the IDE was > awesome? > > > > To reframe the question of the killer app: What common computing problem > > does J uniquely solve, or solve uniquely better? Again, I honestly do not > > know. I'm actively trying to come up with reasons to slip it into my > daily > > routine (which is about 95% Python), and I keep failing. I would have to > > spend probably a month or two of off-hours development to get my small > > j-table project up to par with Python's pandas in just the simple stuff. > > > > > > On Sat, Mar 8, 2014 at 10:38 AM, PMA <peterarmstr...@aya.yale.edu> > wrote: > > > > > I'm surprised that the music discussion continues. > > > I took its instigation as a joke assuming that _any_ > > > music in this context would be distracting at best. > > > > > > > > > > > > PMA wrote: > > > > > >> Maybe Stockhausen's _Klavierstuck IX_? It's based on the Fibonacci > > >> series. > > >> > > >> Roger Hui wrote: > > >> > > >>> (1) There is perhaps a generational difference. Young people might > like > > >>> some background music? > > >>> > > >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > >> 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
