> This is an iota; Alt-i: ? > This is an omega; Alt-w: ? > This is a transpose; Alt-Shift-6: ?
So here I am in Windows, where the equivalents are: iota; ctrl-i omega; ctrl-w transpose; ctrl-shift-6 Fine. So now I want to copy some text in my Dyalog session. I highlight the text and my fingers, without any intervention from my brain, hit ctrl-c. Oops. (ctrl-c is the set intersection symbol, for you non-APL-aficionados.) The main point I want to make is that J has 7-bit ASCII characters and you'd have to have rocks in your head to introduce special characters into J. The following quotes from http://aplteam2.com/aplwiki/BrowserTest are instructive: All versions of Internet Explorer get it wrong. Many browser under Windows are capable of displaying a wide range of APL symbols. However, at least some symbols are missed. Favorites are ⌿⍀⍝⍎⍕⍪ and the symbols for NAND and NOR. I am not interested in discussions about character set issues and how it's a solved problem, etc. Dyalog has indeed done a magnificent job (miraculous, even) with the APL characters. But: the bottom line is that J does not have a character set problem and let's keep it that way. ----- Original Message ----- From: Robert Bernecky <[email protected]> Date: Thursday, March 12, 2009 8:19 Subject: Re: [Jgeneral] J with APL To: General forum <[email protected]>, Morten Kromberg <[email protected]>, 'Geoff Streeter' <[email protected]>, Alexander Skomorokhov <[email protected]>, Adrian Smith <[email protected]> > I'm finally fairly happy with APL text and LaTeX, vi, > web browser, and APL windows now, thanks > to the following: > > - Geoff Streeter (and probably others) at > Dyalog, They have created a Unicode-based > APL system including standard mods to the XFree86 > (Linux windowing) configuration that let me enter > APL characters directly into the APL session, > using keystrokes like these. If you don't > like the > keystrokes, you can customize them to your > own whim: > > This is an iota; Alt-i: ? > This is an omega; Alt-w: ? > This is a transpose; Alt-Shift-6: ? > > What I find entirely delightful about this > approach is that > the keyboard changes also work EXACTLY the > same way in vi, > web browsers, etc. I can copy/cut/paste APL > text across > apps with no problems. > > - Adrian Smith, for his APL385 font. > > - Alexander Skomorokhov, who told me about xelatex and > its ability to crank out APL with no fuss. > > The above red text was directly copy/pasted from a pdf file > produced with xelatex, from this text, which I tinkered from slides > for a talk I'm giving at NYU on March 24. The red text is what > makes the APL happen: > > \documentclass[handout]{beamer} > \usepackage{beamerthemesplit} > > \usepackage{fontspec} > \setmainfont{Arial} > \setmonofont{APL385} > > \title{Tacit Parallelism} > \author{Robert Bernecky} > \institute{Snake Island Research Inc} > \date{\today} > \usecolortheme{default} > > \begin{document} > This is an iota; Alt-i: {\tt ?} > > This is an omega; Alt-w: {\tt ?} > > This is a transpose; Alt-Shift-6: {\tt ?} > \end{document} > > I'm using Linux, but Dyalog also has a BillWare(tm) > version of their unicode system. > > I'm not totally happy with Adrian's font, as I don't think > it has the balance (if that's the right word) and elegance of > Joey Tuttle's APL fonts, and his font seems to pick > typefaces more or less at random. E.g., the dollar sign in > the following looks OK here, but in the pdf file, it is > clearly out of place with the remainder of the text: > > x =. 2 3 $ 4 > > My thanks to all for making life much simpler. > > Bob > > Don Watson wrote: > > Raul > > > > The non-ASCII characters were a bit of a mess. This was a > first attempt at > > something and I am not used to creating such script. I hand > wrote the > > non-ASCII characters onto the printed page and scanned the > result into a PDF > > file. > > > > J programs would still be transferable, because there is no > change to > > storage format - the two ASCII characters are still stored. > The change is > > only when those characters are output. > > > > Don > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "Raul Miller" <[email protected]> > > To: "General forum" <[email protected]> > > Sent: Thursday, March 12, 2009 2:20 AM > > Subject: Re: [Jgeneral] J with APL > > > > > > On Wed, Mar 11, 2009 at 11:15 PM, Don Watson > <[email protected]> wrote: > > > >> http://bcompanion.com/Compromisepdf.pdf > >> > > > > Is there a reason you put this in a pdf ? I ask, because > I recently > > uninstalled adobe's reader because of a security flaw. > > > > http://www.adobe.com/support/security/advisories/apsa09-01.html > > > > I am installing the new version of adobe now, but if you needed > > to use pdf because regular text was inadequate for your proposal, > > I think that says something about the proposal itself -- it would > > mean -- for example -- that you are proposing that J > programs should > > not be transmittable using regular email. > > > > ... > > > > Ok, I have downloaded the proposal now. The hard part, > obviously,> is the characters themselves. (Personally, I > could read the > > J code but had problems understanding the "compromise > > equivalent verb". I am not sure if my problems were because > > of the ways the intended characters were rendered or whether > > my problems in understanding were because I was expected to > > understand some character(s) which I did not understand.) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
