In the text of my talk, not present on the slides, I mention the seamless
integration of arrays and the example of the Newton solver is intended as an
example of iteration without explicit looping. You're right that this could
be emphasized more to a non-APL audience.
One thing I particularly like about the solver example is that it has no
"moving" parts - all the looping and checking one would do for this in a
more conventional language are subsumed by general rules, freeing us to
consider a static representation of the iterator.
Also, if you look at the fourth slide ("Flexible Building Blocks") of my
presentation, you'll see an aside where I note that "verb noun"->"noun" and
"verb adverb"->"verb". I put this in to give an idea of J's underlying
simplicity but did not intend to make it a major point because my biggest
concern here was getting over the hurdles caused by the unconventional
terminology to point out how useful the language is in practice.
There's probably a rule about how many new words you should introduce. I
concentrated on five (figuring one per minute) - noun, verb, adverb,
monadic, and dyadic - but cheated by introducing "conjunction" at the end
without explaining it.
On Wed, Nov 17, 2010 at 11:46 AM, Ian Clark <[email protected]> wrote:
> > You, with your APL background, are so used to the
> > power of arrays, functions, and operators that you
> > take them for granted. But the power of these
> > is the message I want to convey to the uninitiated.
>
> If, as Devon says, "the audience was coders who are interested in
> languages and the mandate was to show code", then you are right and I
> am wrong.
>
> Maybe I'm still too focussed on presenting J to an APL audience.
>
> Even a discussion concentrating on arrays, functions and operators can
> still exhibit plot and viewmat in passing, as it were. And be all the
> more powerful for that.
>
> Ian
>
>
> On Wed, Nov 17, 2010 at 3:37 PM, Roger Hui <[email protected]> wrote:
> > My presentation
> > - Verbs apply to nouns to produce nouns.
> > - "Everything" is a noun.
> > - Adverbs apply to verbs to produce verbs.
> > is not necessarily focussed on grammar and syntax.
> >
> > You, with your APL background, are so used to the
> > power of arrays, functions, and operators that you
> > take them for granted. But the power of these
> > is the message I want to convey to the uninitiated.
> >
> > In fact, if I had to tell the story of J (or APL) in a
> > "1 minute elevator conversation", the above would
> > still be what I'd say.
>
...
--
Devon McCormick, CFA
^me^ at acm.
org is my
preferred e-mail
----------------------------------------------------------------------
For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
