Ian - I think there's a little too much emphasis on grammar and syntax. As always, I favor practical examples. However, a certain amount of introductory grammar is probably unavoidable if there's to be a chance that people will get any sense of understanding the code examples.
For the presentation I put together, the audience was coders who are interested in languages and the mandate was to show code. I did include the nearly gratuitous plots to show how easy it is to quickly get impressive results with minimal set-up. I have ideas for alternate versions of this exercise in which I show how easy it is to do ad-hoc data manipulation. Something like lab would be a good idea, especially as it would lend itself well to a live demo. I've noticed how the Dyalog APL presenters have built themselves a tool which allows them to play canned user inputs in much the way a lab works - this seems essential for streamlining any such "live" presentation. I certainly hope others will waste, er, spend as much time as I did to provide some body of short demos to showcase J. Regards, Devon On Wed, Nov 17, 2010 at 2:09 AM, Ian Clark <[email protected]> wrote: > Like Marshall I'd be inclined to shift focus away from grammar and syntax. > > I remember, when first coming to J, being most impressed by Studio > > Labs... --the message of simplicity they delivered -- and hadn't met > since FORTH. I was keen to know what contributed to it and made it > possible. > > Notably "Plot package". For so many years I'd met so many plotting > packages on so many platforms and I wondered why they couldn't all > have been that simple. > > What still stuns me about J is the inspired absence of crap when > interfacing with the outside world (viewmat, plot, wd...), achieving > cross-platform application development almost as a side-effect. > > Mine is an extreme view, and I offer it only as a counterbalance to > what I imagine most J-ers would showcase to a total newcomer, viz its > grammar and syntax, at work on some impressive mathematical task. > > Horses for courses, however. Who's the audience? Mostly research > mathematicians? Or coding hacks like me? > > But I'd say even research mathematicians will be most impressed, not > by the J approach to their particular line of expertise, but what they > hope from their computer and don't want to muck around with > themselves: viz display and storage of a result and employing it in > some other domain. > > Can we have the result(s) of Devon's exercise in the form of a Lab, please? > > Already "Labs" has 4 introductions to J (A J Introduction; A Taste of > J; An Idiosyncratic Introduction to J; An Introductory Course in J) -- > but I fancy there's room for a fifth from Devon, from his present > far-seeing perspective. > > Ian > > > > > On Wed, Nov 17, 2010 at 1:13 AM, Marshall Lochbaum > <[email protected]> wrote: > > I would be tempted to forego grammar and show some linear algebra in J. > > Maybe use the example Mr. Rich offered a while ago for finding if a line > > segment intersects a ball: > > C (R >: +/&.:*:)@:([- ]* 0>.1<.%.)&(-&S) E > > with center C, radius R, and endpoints E and S. > > Trains and &. are a must, and are covered in this example. > > In fact, a solid five minutes would just be to get this expression > across. > > > > Marshall > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: [email protected] > > [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Roger Hui > > Sent: Tuesday, November 16, 2010 6:58 PM > > To: Programming forum > > Subject: Re: [Jprogramming] Presenting J at the "Language Slapdown" this > > week > > > > If I only have 5 minutes then I would try to get across the following > > points: > > > > - Verbs apply to nouns to produce nouns. > > - "Everything" is a noun. > > - Adverbs apply to verbs to produce verbs. > > > > The examples would be tailored to the audience. > > e.g. In NYC I would have a VWAP example. > > > > > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: Devon McCormick <[email protected]> > > Date: Tuesday, November 16, 2010 15:01 > > Subject: Re: [Jprogramming] Presenting J at the "Language Slapdown" this > > week > > To: Programming forum <[email protected]> > > > >> This just in (from the organizer of the Slapdown): > >> > >> > I have received a large number of cancellations from > >> presenters in the > >> last five days. So, instead of 16 languages we are down to 7. > >> > This small number defeats the purpose of the event, so I am > >> going to > >> cancel it. > >> > >> Nurts! > >> > >> Thanks to all who offered suggestions. It's not a total waste as I > >> now have a 5-minute J intro at the ready. > >> > >> For those of you with ideas on how to go about this, it might be > >> worthwhileto put together your own 5-minute intro. I'd like to see > >> how others approach this. Especially interesting would be some "live" > >> demos: I had > >> planned to assemble a lab to do this before I realized that the > >> presentations were supposed to be canned. > >> > >> I'm sure Raul (see below) is correct about my attempt as I did skim > >> through the pages with the graphs in my rehearsals in order to keep > >> within the time limit. However, part of my strategy was to give > >> people something interesting to look back to as this presentation > >> would have been availableon-line. > >> > >> On Tue, Nov 16, 2010 at 2:04 PM, Raul Miller <[email protected]> > >> wrote: > >> > >> > You will probably see this too late. > >> > > >> > In my opinion, you are still trying to present too much for five > >> > minutes. Those pages are very busy, and I think they present too > >> > much for a five minute presentation. > >> > ... > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > 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 > -- Devon McCormick, CFA ^me^ at acm. org is my preferred e-mail ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
