The www.wolframalpha.com is such a formulator as requested by Neville Holmes below. I find it very impressive. I wonder when the symbolic power of Mathematica is united with the compact expressive power of J.
--- Den man 22/11/10 skrev neville holmes <[email protected]>: > Fra: neville holmes <[email protected]> > Emne: Re: [Jprogramming] tacit programming > Til: [email protected] > Dato: mandag 22. november 2010 06.03 > I have been bemused by the discussion > of tacit coding. > Having some time ago been forced from APL to J and > being utterly delighted by the tacit style, I taught > it at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. > See "Tacit J and I" in Vector Vol.23 No.3 > (www.vector.org.uk/archive/v233/tji.htm) which gave > the background to the series of tutorial essays I used > for Honours classes in "Functional Calculation" and > which started appearing in that Vector and are continuing, > despite publicity to the contrary. > > My tack was that the tacit style is the purest imaginable > (to me at any rate) mode of functional expression and my > experience was that the students agreed and coped very > well, though they always went back to what they saw as > the more expressive (I disagreed) coding styles as in > Basic (ouch!) and C (shrug!) for example. > > The core issue seems to be whether you are tackling > a calculation or facing up to a massive system. I > held > the opinion that tacit J was basically calculation and > that connecting to files and databases was peripheral. > > However, there are problems in calculating with tacit J. > I recently put an essay in my Computer column describing > a device I called the formulator (see > eprints.utas.edu.au/9474) that was based om my experience > teaching tacit J (though that essay doesn't explicitly say > so). > > What I proposed for the formulator would take the familiar > calculator and take it a level higher, from arithmetic > to algebra. I have another essay explaining the > formulator in more detail for the APL/J world and this > awaits proofing and publication (but see > www.vector.org.uk/?vol=24&no=4&art=holmes (Stephen: > I trust > this isn't out of line; it seemed a good time to expose it > to J people)). > > My motive was to provide a simple tool for people learning > and teaching mathematics at school, and the striving for > simplicity is the reason for some deviations from, > and subsetting of, APL/J. However, adoption of the > formulator would make transition to APL/J quite simple > for formulator users. > > Should anyone wish to produce a formulator I would be > delighted to cooperate, but I don't feel up to doing it > myself alone). > > Neville Holmes, P.O. Box 2412, Bakery Hill 3354, Victoria > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
