There is one mechanism that would make J much easier to learn and use. We need a specialized search engine for the J Software site. This search engine would translate common programming terms from other programming languages, as well as English queries, into pointers to the appropriate J content on the site. This wouldn't be particularly easy to do, but an auto-translating search engine would provide a huge boost to most newbies exploring the language for the first time, whether as an experienced programmer, or a novice.
The steepest part of the J learning curve is J's radical change in terminology from common programming terminology, as well as the re-use of English parts of speech as programming concepts. This tends to confuse both experienced programmers, as well as novices learning their first programming language. Non-programmers who may know all about nouns and verbs, get confused about those names getting used in this context. If a newbie could type in a word like "variable" and get an explanation about nouns, "function" and get a paragraph on verbs, or "arguments" and get an explanation about monadic, dyadic, and vector input, I believe that the learning curve could be dramatically shortened. Skip Skip Cave Cave Consulting LLC On Mon, Mar 31, 2014 at 2:14 PM, Raul Miller <[email protected]> wrote: > On Mon, Mar 31, 2014 at 3:02 PM, robert therriault > <[email protected]> wrote: > > I guess what I am saying is that we should make it as likely as > > possible for learners to be successful at learning J. Water tends > > to flow downhill and as much as you do have control over the > > learning environment, you can make the learning more or less likely. > > Definitely. > > Thanks, > > -- > Raul > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
