Does it really matter what APL "The only problem is that if you take abstraction to its ultimate conclusion,
you get a language like APL which, except for some niche applications, failed dismally because it became too difficult to work with." Many(/most?) people think J is difficult too. No matter how hard we point out how easy it is they do consider it too hard and give up. Many in c.l.a complain J is too hard to read or write. The real challenge is to find out why they find it so difficult and see if it would be possible to make it easier. I have always thought that we need books like "J for Dummies". I would write one if I knew how. I guess I am beyond seeing what challenges a Dummy might face trying to learn J. I guess most of us are. Like reading this article that he is giving an answer. "Things that conceivably might take dozens or hundreds of lines of code in a lesser programming language really could be done in *one line* of APL. I've seen it done. It kind of convinced me I'd never be able to do that kind of work, I don't have the background." I guess many people like that give up before trying or after just a short test. The entry barrier seems to be too high. In my opinion J does not have as a big hindrance as APL in general does. Having left out a lot of APL failings. Also having many good labs, demos and helps. Even so it does seem to be hard for many to start using J. Quite a lot of people may get scared off by trying to do some advanced things before they have managed to learn the basics. I guess the real basics are very easy but the step over to do some simple things with data from the outside and doing presentations and printing may be to big of a step for the newbie in many cases. I guess the grid tools will be a big help in getting newbies hooked. I think we are getting there but slowly. Easy tools to operate the web would be great. 2007/1/25, Miller, Raul D <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
Randy A MacDonald wrote: > I'm curious as to what he means by APL(or J, for that > matter) failing.... I'm also curious about which version of APL Paul was referring to. The few hints he dropped suggest VSAPL, but only he knows (assuming he does know...). -- Raul ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
-- Björn Helgason, Verkfræðingur Fugl&Fiskur ehf, Þerneyjarsund 23, Box 127 801 Grímsnes ,t-póst: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Skype: gosiminn, gsm: +3546985532 Landslags og skrúðgarðagerð, gröfuþjónusta http://groups.google.com/group/J-Programming Tæknikunnátta höndlar hið flókna, sköpunargáfa er meistari einfaldleikans góður kennari getur stigið á tær án þess að glansinn fari af skónum /|_ .-----------------------------------. ,' .\ / | Með léttri lund verður | ,--' _,' | Dagurinn í dag | / / | Enn betri en gærdagurinn | ( -. | `-----------------------------------' | ) | (\_ _/) (`-. '--.) (='.'=) `. )----' (")_(")
---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
