Sorry, no. To my knowledge, only Ken and I know. Ken's not telling and neither am I.
There _is_ more information about the name in Section 10.2 of *APL Since 1978 <https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3386319>*. On Sat, Aug 21, 2021 at 1:01 PM Jose Mario Quintana < [email protected]> wrote: > > Dr. Iverson recommended I read "The Book of J” by Harold Bloom when I was > asking about the name he chose for his programming language. > > > > Perhaps it was an instance of telepathy since, > > ' > I studied this interpreter for about a week for its organization and > programming style; and on Sunday, August 27, 1989, at about four o’clock in > the afternoon, wrote the first line of code that became the implementation > described in this document. > > The name “J” was chosen a few minutes later, when it became necessary to > save the interpreter source file for the first time. > > — Roger Hui, Remembering Ken Iverson, 2004 > ' > > After decades of true stories [0] Roger might be kind enough to shed more > light on how the name was chosen in addition to 'Why "J"? It is easy to > type.' (Oh well, apparently, we know at least pretty well when the name > was chosen.) > > [0] [Jprogramming] Hi. (jsoftware.com) > <http://www.jsoftware.com/pipermail/programming/2009-October/016557.html> > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
