Joey, Thanks for your kind words. Can't promise that all those endnotes will make it into the dead tree version... but the J Wiki gives them a good home, even if they don't.
I've laboured in the vinyard with this book, as you've detected. The whole history of its production has been full of thankless tasks -- but in hindsight they are only "thankless" in the sense of having been their own reward. I was trained as an algebraist, which in those days conferred a disdain for the boggy work of "field biology" with raw numbers. My lecturer said he became a mathematician because he couldn't add up. It was back in the days when "computer" (in the UK) meant the little man kept in the cellar of the Mathematics Dept grinding away at a Brunsviga. Too late in life have I realised how many things have gone clean over my head -- and APWJ has been one of the things helping me realise it. The last line of Ch 17, To Summarise (Play151) was one of Gene's little jokes which went clean over my head. Yes, it needs a footnote about Feynman for the benefit of people like me. Incidentally, a glance back at Edn 1 shows the last sentence has been omitted (...Cut'n'Paste Strikes Again???) -- it originally read: "In fact if such strings *didn't* occur every now and then, it would argue against randomness." I want that sentence back in. "...A little research on the part of the reader?" did you say? At one time I'd have had enough here (taken in conjunction with Ch 16, Play144) to keep an MSc student in IT busy for a term on her dissertation. Yes, please add endnotes to articles, at any stage, even if you aren't the volunteering reviser. I shall see them when I come to them. I'm up to Ch 16 right now -- so it's best to email me about any endnotes you add from now on, to alert me to go back & read them. (Disclaimer: as I've already said, I won't guarantee they'll go in the book). As to what I meant by "never writing another original APL application" -- I'll open a new thread to reply to that. Ian Clark Subed, APWJ edn 2. On Mon, May 25, 2009 at 6:51 PM, Joey K Tuttle <[email protected]> wrote: > Ian, > > Looking at your edited pages, I see nice endnotes and other > references that enhance the book. I think the end result should be > interesting. Makes me feel guilty about not including something > similar... (although in my own editing, I only made two very minor > changes - adding a missing ' and putting in @: in place of @ -- and > not being able to cite what changed to make @ the wrong choice, but > verifying that it does work correctly, as changed, in current j. > > Browsing through other articles just now, I think a note about the > last line of Play151 citing the "Feynman point" (perhaps something > from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feynman_point ) > might be a nice addition - I'm not suggesting a wikipedia link, just > the fact that the example was from a well regarded source. Although, > I suspect Eugene's original idea was that such a thing might foster a > little research on the part of the reader... > > In your message below, I am curious what you mean when you say, "[I] > probably will never write another original APL application. J's > portability between Windows, Mac and PDA alone sees to that for me." > Can you explain to me what you mean by that?? > > - joey > > > At 11:28 +0100 2009/05/25, Ian Clark wrote: >>On that point, could somebody please eyeball the chapters of APWJ >>(http://www.jsoftware.com/jwiki/At%20Play%20With%20J) which I've >>marked as revised by myself, to check I haven't goofed? >> >>I'm having a lot of fun learning J -- and probably will never write >>another original APL application. J's portability between Windows, Mac >>and PDA alone sees to that for me. But I really ought to have learnt J >>thoroughly before presuming to revise a book about its subtleties. >> >>However, subeditors can't be choosers -- and copydates take >>precedence over all. >> >>Ian Clark >> >> >>On Mon, May 25, 2009 at 11:00 AM, Ian Clark >><[email protected]> wrote: >>> BTW where the book has footnotes I'm inserting the same text inline >>> between square brackets. Ch 2 (Play103) illustrates. >>---------------------------------------------------------------------- >>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
