Hey, my email has elicited much more response than I could have imagined. I haven't had the time to go over 1/100th of the material you all have mentioned. Thanks everyone, this is great.
And, uh... this does NOT mean "that's enough". Keep writing, I like it :-) Mattia On Tue, Apr 1, 2008 at 1:11 AM, Bill Harris < [EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 > > 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 > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- > Version: GnuPG v1.4.7 (MingW32) > Comment: For more information, see http://www.gnupg.org > > iD8DBQFH8cRP3J3HaQTDvd8RAm1mAJ4ykVkavXpzon7TdWHeVLng1irAOQCdELsd > Sa5HEnt4/4h5x7JYwz2VREo= > =GigP > -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > -- Mattia Landoni 1201 S Eads St Apt 417 Arlington, VA 22202-2837 USA Greenwich -5 hours Office: +1 202 62 35922 Cell: +1 202 492 3404 Home: +1 360 968 1684 Govern a great country as you would fry a small fish: do not poke at it too much. -- Lao Tzu ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
