Longtimers are familiar with this (as well as mediumtimers such as myself, who are still near the bottom of the learning curve), but newbies may be unaware of Jsoftware's guidelines for content in the various forums (I've organized them slightly differently than Jsoftware does):
Forums of general interest: (1) programming - the main forum, covering J programming from beginner to expert, and announcements (2) general - installation, support, website and other infrastructure topics (3) chat - all other discussions on computer languages and J - messages welcomed from both J and non-J programmers Forums of specialized interest: (4) beta - current beta (bugs, problems, suggestions) (5) source - J engine source In other words, if you have questions about how to do something in J (or why something doesn't seem to work correctly), how to use the language, how to use phrases and the like, the Programming Forum is the place to ask. If you have questions or comments about the J language itself, its primitives and control structures, suggestions for language improvements, or reports of language bugs, the General Forum is the place to go. It's also the place to ask installation questions. Use the Chat Forum if you have questions or comments about the relationships and similarities between J and other programming languages (using J with other languages goes in the Programming Forum, though), general programming techniques, or similar topics. Obviously, all of these are merely typical examples of the kinds of things that are discussed in each forum. (Look through the forum archives to get a better "feel" for typical topics of discussion.) Regarding the specialized forums, Eric Iverson has always stated that this Beta Forum is to be strictly limited to feedback on beta testing of new versions of J. It is not a place for general discussion of the J language or programming. In other words, this Beta Forum is rarely used and pretty much only on instruction to do so from Eric during beta testing periods. The J Source Forum is for those who are interested in discussing and improving the J engine source code, as well as creating versions for new platforms. [I hope I haven't misstated anything in my interpretations of the forum contents based on subscribing to and reading the contents of all J forums during the past 5 years.] Harvey ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
