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Tracy Harms <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:

>>From what you've written I'm guessing that you're set to learn J more
> easily than many programmers. Familiarity and comfort with mathematics
> is enormously helpful because so many of the best demonstrations of J
> are mathematical. Indeed, my nomination for the single most important
> thing to appreciate about the language is this: J is a mathematical
> notation that happens to be executable on computers.

Hear!  Hear!  I think that last sentence was in Ken's original vision
for APL and for J.  I learned APL only as a mathematical notation; by
the time I had ready access to a computer with APL, J was available.

As to the first part of your paragraph: there's the old "how to shoot
yourself in the foot in various programming languages."  I believe the
APL one is that you shot yourself in the foot but don't remember enough
linear algebra to figure out what happened.  There's at least a tad bit
of truth hidden there.  (Now what is a manifold again? :-)

Bill
- -- 
Bill Harris                      http://facilitatedsystems.com/weblog/
Facilitated Systems                              Everett, WA 98208 USA
http://facilitatedsystems.com/                  phone: +1 425 337-5541
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