I guess you'll have tried something like the Oxford Dictionary of Mathematics?
If computing is, formally speaking, a bit of a mess (like most engineering,
more concerned with what works {..which is situational} than what is formally
'correct'), then going back to maths seems initially sensible. After all,
reforming maths notation was always part of the APL/J project, wasn't it?
-----Original Message-----
From: Chat <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Ian Clark
Sent: 08 March 2018 05:30
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Jchat] What do programmers mean by: variable, constant, function,
array, etc?
Thanks, Yuvaraj. I reckon your 2¢ is worth at least 2 bitcoins! :-D
December 2017! That's really timely.
I recall back in the 80s a leading commentator grousing that C++ was being used
for mission-critical applications before the ANSI standard had been fully
worked out. Then I watched as machine "words" grew longer and longer, and int
had variants like a sow had piglets.
And spacecraft plowed into Mars. (In 1972 the Russians hurled literally tons of
hardware at the planet.)
And as for C%2B%2B…!! You daren't name a language these days and expect even
the name to stay still. And we all felt ASCII was safe from all that:
dear old solid "+".
> Have you considered looking into C++ Glossary … ?
Yes, I had, but every language offers its own glossary. Sometimes (like J) more
than one.
I had hoped to find a "shared" glossary, hallmarked by God – or, failing that,
the genuinely accredited proxy (…one or the other).
But every computer language begetter takes it for granted his language is
destined to be the only one on earth.
I'm apt to go back to my original plan: write separate "first-contact"
treatments for each leading language.
Henry had it right [Rich, H., *J for C Programmers*, 2004, 2007-10-03] But mine
would follow matched patterns, except for using the reader's vocabulary.
Thus, the Python book on leaves of gold states (somewhere): "there's only one
way of doing it."
The corresponding J para would say: "There's always one more way of doing it."
That's a lot of gold I'll need. Thank God J is terse.
On Thu, Mar 8, 2018 at 4:30 AM, Yuvaraj Athur Raghuvir < [email protected]>
wrote:
> Hi Ian,
>
> Have you considered looking into C++ Glossary
> http://www.stroustrup.com/glossary.html ? I enjoyed "The Annotated C++
> Reference Manual" when I was learning C++ for the first time.
>
> C++ is an established ISO standard - latest being granted in December
> C++ 2017
> as *ISO/IEC 14882
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%2B%2B#Standardization>:2017*
> (informally known as C++17 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%2B%2B17>)
> [1]
>
> My 2c,
> Yuvaraj
>
> [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%2B%2B
>
>
> On Tue, Mar 6, 2018 at 4:28 AM, Ian Clark <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > It's absurdly difficult to write a good "first-contact" text for J
> without
> > reference to a single accepted source of definitions like: platform,
> > program, app, script, variable, constant, function, array, string,
> > character, number …
> >
> > Is there an ISO standard for common programmer terms (in English)?
> >
> > If the answer is: legion (…my first impression) – then is there one
> > that stands out for you?
> >
> > I have an operational need for a weblink to a good clear published
> > free authoritative text. To avoid cluttering this thread, please
> > don't offer your own definitions of the above terms here (although
> > of course I'd be frightfully interested to hear them one day.)
> > --------------------------------------------------------------------
> > -- For information about J forums see
> > http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
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>
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