I'm a fan of introducing Explicit fairly early on, but I see it as vital to guide somebody into some of Explicit's script-formation requirements before directing them to control structures. I've seen many, myself included, baffled by control structures when the required context of an Explicit script was not understood. On Jan 15, 2012 6:06 PM, "Kip Murray" <k...@math.uh.edu> wrote:
> J and Q are good choices. Why don't you report your findings without > letting us prejudice you one way or the other? If you have difficulty > doing a particular problem in J, explain the difficulty and we will try > to help. > > The J Primer http://www.jsoftware.com/docs/help701/primer/contents.htm > is an excellent place to begin learning J. Looking down that table of > contents page I see "Control structure" and am led to > http://www.jsoftware.com/docs/help701/primer/control_structure.htm > where we see, following and preceding clear examples, > > ------- > There are nine control structure patterns: > if. T do. B end. > if. T do. B else. B1 end. > if. T do. B elseif. T1 do. B1 elseif. T2 do. B2 end. > try. B catch. B1 end. > while. T do. B end. > whilst. T do. B end. > for. T do. B end. > for_i. T do. B end. > select. T > case. T0 do. B0 > case. T1 do. B1 > fcase.T2 do. B2 > case. T3 do. B3 > end. > A control structure starts with if. , try. , while. , whilst , for. , > for_i. , or select. and ends with a matching end. . > > Words beginning with T or B denote a block of 0 or more sentences and > can contain nested control structures. > > The result of the last sentence in a T block determines which block is > executed next and whether execution in the control structure is finished. > ------- > > Happy exploration! > > > Kip Murray > > > On 1/15/2012 12:29 PM, Colin Ward wrote: > > Hi all, > > > > I am trying to choose a specific array language to learn and have > narrowed > > my list down to two - J and Q/kbd. Is there any general accepted wisdoms > > known by you experienced in either as to the pro's / cons of each. > > > > My thoughts so far are: > > > > 1) It is for personal/learning use - so i am not bothered by the high > cost > > of K as they have a free version for personal use. > > > > > > 2) My first project is parsing a csv generated from excel and distilling > it > > - I find that the Q syntax of select/where clauses are easier, and the > > equivalent in J is not so obvious. I know of JDB but I do not need > > permanent storage and I am not finding it easy to learn how to use it. > > Is it easy to perform the equivalent of select/where in J tables > without > > ahving to use JDB? > > > > > > 3) Q say they are fast - is J a lot slower? > > > > > > 4) I really like the thought of J for its tacit programming, and I also > > would like to experiment with combinator logic as described in the book > 'to > > mock a mockingbird'. (it looks like form/hooks may be linked to the S/K > > functions in Churchs combinatory logic). Does Q have tacit programming? > > > > I have read the archive to glean what I can but kdb questions seem to be > a > > lot more specific than mine. > > > > Thanks in advance for any of your thoughts on this. > > > > best regards > > Colin > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > 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