I agree with your comment about typesetting boxes in TeX/LaTeX. I tried it a few times but had too much difficulty. I realized that even if I figured it out it wasn't worth the effort. Hence I use boxes (with ascii characters...no fancy utf-8 box drawing characters) primarily in plain txt or html (both monospaced font). Besides, searching/grepping is easier for these formats than pdf. The most consistent typeset J syntax in TeX/LaTeX documents that I have found are "A Brief J Reference" (only one box in this) and John D. Baker's JOD help documentation (lots of boxes and J code).
Thanks for the book reference. On Fri, Jan 9, 2015 at 8:54 PM, Joey K Tuttle <[email protected]> wrote: > Vijay, > > Thanks for sharing your observations. I am not a fan of boxes (well I like > and use them all the time but have lost too much time and hair over the > "typography of boxes"). > > But your use of them to demonstrate concepts in other contexts is a good > one. One of the places that sealed my dislike was exactly that use in " > Blaauw, G.A., F.P. Brooks, Jr./Computer Architecture: Concepts and > Evolution/. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1997, 1213 pages." Again, I'm not > saying I disliked the resulting explanations and pictures, but rather that > getting the characters to typeset correctly from the TeX source document > caused considerable angst. > > I agree that interactive computing is a lot of fun. Thanks for additional > thoughts on things in J that are likely to appeal to new users. > > > > On 2015/01/09 07:40 , Vijay Lulla wrote: > >> Devon, >> Not only short snippets like the ones you mention, but on >> projecteuler.net, >> but also the distinctive display of information in such posts increased my >> curiosity. I distinctly remember the first time I saw some boxed items, I >> thought "Nice! this programmer must have some utility/program to generate >> such output". But I kept on seeing this so often (in J submissions by >> different authors) that I thought that it might be something that J >> programmers just do. Regardless, it deserved further examination. And, >> boy am I glad that I persisted. Box display is another aspect of J that I >> absolutely love. I now use J to create boxed displays for use in my >> documents (primarily txt or html) to demonstrate some concepts in other >> languages. For e.g. I used { (>:i.3);>:i.3 to demonstrate 2-dimensional >> indexing for use in R. >> >> J (and R too) make interactive use so much fun. And this is the primary >> reason I like these languages so much. >> Thanks, >> Vijay. >> >> On Fri, Jan 9, 2015 at 8:36 AM, Devon McCormick <[email protected]> >> wrote: >> >> Hi Vijay - >>> >>> Thanks for the sharing your views. It's always good to hear from new >>> enthusiasts. Those of us who have been doing this for a long time >>> sometimes feel like we're shouting into the wind, so it's good to feel >>> that >>> the community's efforts are appreciated. >>> >>> I especially appreciate your acknowledgement that much of what we do in >>> other languages and environments constitutes wasting our time on >>> minutiae. >>> I have to work in other languages because of work - though I do some J >>> here >>> as well - and feel very keenly the time wasted when I have to code up a >>> five- or ten-character J solution in ten or twenty lines of code. >>> >>> I was recently perusing the J contributions on "dailyprogrammer" (e.g. >>> >>> http://www.reddit.com/r/dailyprogrammer/comments/ >>> 2rfae0/20150105_challenge_196_practical_exercise_ready/ >>> ) >>> from "Godspiral" and, comparing the his few lines of J to others' pages >>> of >>> C++ or Java, I remain astonished that this disparity doesn't raise more >>> curiosity about J. >>> >>> Regards, >>> >>> Devon >>> >>> >>> On Thu, Jan 8, 2015 at 9:04 PM, Vijay Lulla <[email protected]> >>> wrote: >>> >>> Hi all, >>>> I came across the below article by the way of Hacker News. >>>> http://brookeallen.com/pages/archives/1234 >>>> >>>> I'd like to share a couple of my views about J community. I came across >>>> >>> J >>> >>>> sometime in 2012 by the way of projecteuler.net. As I learned a little >>>> >>> bit >>> >>>> of the J language I realized that I was spending (wasting?) a lot of >>>> time >>>> on minutiae in other languages/environments! I kept at it and now J is >>>> >>> my >>> >>>> favorite language and I use it almost daily. There are a couple of >>>> >>> things >>> >>>> very unique about J: the awesome community, and the amount of >>>> interesting >>>> material that this community has generated. >>>> >>>> I'm also very impressed with the community's interest in always tying >>>> >>> many >>> >>>> lessons/insights to its roots. This is unique, at least IMO to J >>>> >>> (probably >>> >>>> to APL too but I couldn't say since I've not used it). And the more I >>>> >>> read >>> >>>> about people like Ken Iverson, Ian Sharp, and Eugene McDonnell I'm even >>>> more impressed. These guys could not help being geniuses...but they >>>> >>> chose >>> >>>> to be excellent human beings (Ken Iverson's gesture of dingy bills >>>> [mentioned in Beginnings in http://keiapl.org/rhui/remember.htm], Ian >>>> Sharp's overall attitude [as listed in >>>> http://www.jsoftware.com/papers/IPSA50.htm], and McDonnell's efforts to >>>> make J accessible/fun)! I don't think I can find better role models (in >>>> programming and real life) to emulate. >>>> >>>> I don't know why I felt compelled to share this with all of you. I >>>> >>> guess, >>> >>>> just to tell you that all your work/efforts have impacted me, very >>>> positively, and I appreciate it, as I'm sure many others do, very much. >>>> >>>> Thanks, >>>> Vijay. >>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >>>> For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm >>>> >>>> >>> >>> -- >>> Devon McCormick, CFA >>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >>> 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 > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
