Thanks Brian (especially for the comments on the halves), Your minimalist approach is one that I am leaning towards for the short reference animations, which are meant to serve those that already have a good understanding of the primitives. For the longer explanatory version for the newcomer audience, I do think that the indicators are necessary to make the operations more obvious (however, I have been known to be wrong). Certainly, if newcomers find the movement and flashes distracting, they can be toned down.
I think the halves animation could definitely benefit from the 'two-stage' transition. I do find it interesting that you don't find it easy to visualize adding halves and have suggested additional movement; whereas in the areas where you have clear concepts (such as operator arguments of different ranks) the movement seems excessive. I really do think we are looking at a 'minimalist reference animation' vs. 'expanded introduction animation' split in the development of these animations. Cheers, bob On -Mar27-2010, at -Mar27-20105:59 AM, Brian Schott wrote: > Bob, > > Regarding the extended Plus (dyad) animation: > > I like most of it, but am really put off by two things, > the example involving halves and the overall movement and blinking. > > The movement and blinking is excessive and distracting to me, so I > want much less. I am thinking that maybe the only thing that should > blink is the plus sign and maybe an arrow, not the arguments. And > nothing except the graph should have movement, only repositioning, > except perhaps the plus sign or the arrow could pulse or expand, but > not move. > > The halves example lost me until I looked really hard and I knew what > you were trying to show; the information in the green bottom was > especially hieroglyphic to me. I wonder if a 2 stage development might > work better here, where 2 becomes 4r2 and then 3r2+4r2 becomes 7r2? I > just don't have any good ideas for visualizing adding halves, though, > and hope others have ideas. > > A lesser problem for me, as I said before, is the vector and array > examples, which I believe should be handled elsewhere because they are > rank/shape issues. > > I do like these new extended demos though and want to encourage and > thank you for them. > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
