Your second question, Bill, is the $64,000 question. I am only thinking
presently of the issue of persuading the J community that there is something
worth doing.
To answer your first question, I taught the first course at our local
university in which the students used a computer. I met Ken Iverson in the
1960s and knew him through the APL community for which I jointly edited its
magazine , Quote Quad - or was it Quad Quote? - for two years. I wrote a
self teaching package in APL in the 1960s which was an ancestor of your
labs, except that Computer Assisted Instruction was a big thing then, so if
you got a wrong answer, it tried to take you down a corrective path. If you
do some arithmetic, you can see that the answer to your first question has
to be "no".
I stated the above to give credibility to the idea that I do have some
experience in watching APL spread - and studying history can give clues to
how to approach the future - and thus provide an answer your second
question. Yes, IBM was rich and rich enough to finance a lot of research
which might or might not come to any financial success. APL's ability to
show that the 360 series was consistent was helpful, but convincing data
processing executives that there was money in Mathematics was a hard task.
APL spread, not from the top down, but from the bottom up. I first met
it when I went to seminar entitled: "The Role of the Computer in Teaching".I
watched the instructor, K. Iverson, talking about this language, wondering
all the time why he didn't use a language we all knew, like Algol or
Fortran. Then it suddenly clicked - this isn't just another computer
language. All over North America, other university teachers were having the
same experience I had. Only when we were all using APL did IBM think it was
worth promoting it to us. We loaned terminals to the local college and local
schools, using the old modems where you stuck the phone receiver into a
wooden box. I wrote an interactive program for vistor demonstration that we
used for school tours. In those days this produced squeals of delight,
because the hammering of the typeball at the paper at the breakneck speed of
15 characters per second made it seem that the computer was talking to
them - and, if you can imagine it, children were very unsophisticated about
computers then.
I have used J to illustrate infinite series to a gifted10 year old boy
amongst other things. It has shown me, for example, that getting across the
idea of a limit, which is probably the biggest barrier to the understanding
of Calculus, can be taught so easily with a portable computer system at an
early age. By the time the student gets to Calculus, limits can be "old
hat". A universally portable powerful mathematical system brought to the
classroom is excessively important in the teaching of Mathematics. However,
in the 1960s it took a lot of money to set up computer labs. I knew
professors who tried to use the computer in the 1970s for teaching
Mathematics, but carrying an IBM 360/50 with you to the classroom or even
laying a long cable along the corridoor and carrying an IBM 2741 printer
terminal was out of the question. It is much easier today. One cannot
survive and be a good teacher without having a portable computer already.
The 2741 had to have a special typeball, which meant it was useless for any
other purpose. J uses an ASCII keyboard. So there is a huge advantage today
in the task of spreading a computer system - the user doesn't have to spend
any money on hardware. All that has to be done is to sell the idea.
J is aimed at a sophisticated community. I can see that from the
documentation and the responses given in this debate. In the 1960s APL was
able to reach everyone. I am just asking myself what the barriers are to J
reaching eveyone. One barrier is tacit programming and I have been trying to
address that one. A second barrier is the two character symbols. While it
doesn't take that long to get used to them, it's the first view of the house
that sells it. If you can't get them in through the front door, they will
never know what a beautiful dining room the house has. I have partially
addressed that one, but I will return to it. Another set of documentation is
needed. I do have qualifications and experience in both Mathematics and
Computer Science, but I have a struggle with the notes behind the
vocabulary. That won't attract a 5th grade school teacher.
Finally, I can give some suggestion as to why the use of APL shrank. One
advantage initially, believe it or not, was in the slowness of the terminal.
We happily keyed in our programs and expressions and pressed return. There
was a short pause and the terminal began hammering away. It really felt as
if the computer was talking to us. We were quite happy to wait while it
printed. But the point is that a terminal was a very light load as a result.
When we moved to computer screens, things changed. Nothing chattered to
amuse us, the response was quick, we became impatient for a quicker and
quicker response and the computer load increased. However, there was still
not much else on computers that was fun. Microcomputers brought customized
fun. So mathematical computing is for ever reduced to a serious purpose.
Progress moves in cycles, in ebbs and flows. I think it is time for another
flow.
Don
----- Original Message -----
From: "bill lam" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, April 24, 2009 9:48 PM
Subject: Re: [Jchat] Language S
> On Fri, 24 Apr 2009, Don Watson wrote:
>> 9) I believe there is a huge audience out there for a mutation of J that
>> is
>> ````consistent throughout, has a shorter learning curve and is closer to
>> ````mathematical notation.
>
> You mentioned that your target audience would be primary and high
> school teachers, are you in any organisational hierarchy to influence
> the academic curriculum? If not, why would think that (S or J or any
> perfect programming language) will be well accepted?
>
> --
> regards,
> ====================================================
> GPG key 1024D/4434BAB3 2008-08-24
> gpg --keyserver subkeys.pgp.net --recv-keys 4434BAB3
> 唐詩042 李白 子夜四時歌 冬歌
> 明朝驛使發 一夜絮征袍 素手抽鍼冷 那堪把剪刀 裁縫寄遠道 幾日到臨洮
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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