> At Play with J is a series of articles that Eugene McDonnell wrote for
> Vector magazine. There are 42 of them, and they are a treasure trove of
> J. Many can be seen on the wiki at http://www.jsoftware.com/jwiki/Articles.
>
> The British APL Association, who publish Vector, would like to republish
> the collection in book form. Unfortunately, some of the J code is
> obsolete. We would like to update the code so that it works in the
> latest version of J. The book would then appeal to the J novice as well
> as the expert.
>
> I think this a worthwhile project for the J community as well as BAA,
> and would like to co-opt the help of forum members. What I propose is
> that all the articles are put on the wiki, and volunteers take
> responsibility for updating individual articles. Once this is complete,
> the BAA would use the wiki pages as source for the book. Volunteers will
> be given credit in the book, but I think that assisting BAA in honoring
> Eugene will be its own reward.
>
> The wiki page http://www.jsoftware.com/jwiki/At%20Play%20With%20J has a
> table of the articles, and more information on the kind of editing that
> might be required. Please take a look and see if you can help.
>
> Ian Clark of BAA is managing this project. Please email Ian if you need
> more information, or discuss the project in the Chat forum.
>
> Thanks
>
> Chris

If notes other than related to updating J code are to be considered,
I'd like to mention the following.

Near the end of the article “Belgian Numbers”
(http://www.vector.org.uk/archive/v221/belgium.htm),
there is this paragraph, explaining why the numbers were
so called:

‘Why Belgian, indeed.  Well, there are Roman numbers, Arabic
numbers, even Catalan numbers.  It’s about time Belgium was
recognized.  […] Eric Angelini (the creator of these numbers)
[…] is Belgian.’

The text is misleading by suggesting that Catalan numbers were
named after the Spanish province or the language that is being
spoken in it.  In fact they are named after a mathematician.

What is particularly amusing is that Eugène Catalan – except
being a namesake with Eugene McDonnell(!) – was … Belgian.

So it is at least for the second time that Belgium gets recognised
in Number theory.
(In fact, the first time I saw the title “Belgian Numbers”,
I thought it had to do with Catalan numbers.)

     Boyko
----------------------------------------------------------------------
For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm

Reply via email to