> Date: Fri, 29 Jul 2011 21:44:10 -0400 > From: Tracy Harms <[email protected]>
> I think tacit form is such a > centerpiece that it > deserves to be present in any intro. Tacit form is really powerful - a friend of mine said 'it's like RPL for operators'. But J has some other powerful ideas - short (1-2 chars) generalized (my favorite example - division by 0 is allowed) well-chosen (orthogonal?) primitives are very important. When I'm trying to find what's most important in J, I tend to agree that notation, indeed, is valuable for thinking. That example with solving a problem while shopping was good :) . Henry is likely right - most will dismiss J as not a serous thing. I'd be tempted to start a presentation with a challenge - if the listeners can be open-minded enough to look at things which are simple only at the surface. Like, how'd you add two arrays? Isn't a + b simpler than for(int i=0...? And then there is a statement - like, there are a few primitives, which combined allow to solve any problems in such a manner - without writing miscellaneous code. And this is one of important points, IMO - instead of typing long lines, I type only what I really need - between the thought and running example there are just a few keystrokes. Good luck with presentation. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
