You can find a very good APL at http://dyalog.com/
J and APL share the same base and very many ideas are the same and it is of course for obvious reasons because Ken Iverson created both. He created APL first and years later wanted to further advance his ideas and changed a lot of things and that became J. Many people do like APL and do not like to convert to J. A lot of others have started in APL and use both. There is an overlap and some things are very different. I guess you can say they are like french and italien. Both are latin languages but they are not the same and I am not sure if knowing one helps a lot learning the other. It may actually be worse. 2009/5/16 Ian Gorse <[email protected]> > Hi list, > > I have been following J for around a year now, after seeing some > solutions to Project Euler in J's (initial) cryptic syntax. As someone > who likes to learn new things, I couldn't resist the urge to visit the > J programming website and download the software. > Now, I have been learning J purely from a curiosity point of view, and > have solved half of my Project Eulers problems with J, so I am slowing > getting the hang of it and enjoying my time experimenting with J. As I > am not mathematically inclined, I do find it a challenge understanding > various terminologies that is used throughout the help system but its > nice expanding my knowledge. > > Not long after I started to experiment with J, I hear of APL, and > after a quick search I quickly dismissed it after, 1. unable to find > an interpreter, 2. noticed it needed it own keyboard, and 3. the > symbols turned me off before I gave it a chance. > > Well, as I said above, as I like to learn new things I decided to look > up APL a bit more and soon found, NARS2000 interpreter, a nice > keyboard bitmap that shows where the symbols are on a standard > keyboard, and a very excellent interactive tutorial called Zark APL > Tutor. > > I have been going through the Zark APL Tutor the past couple of days, > and I actually use both J and NARS2000, side by side, with the tutor > software, and I am finding that I have a better "understanding" in J. > > I know that they are very similar but by having a good understanding > of APL, will it it help in the learning process of J? > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > -- Björn Helgason, Verkfræðingur Fugl&Fiskur ehf, Þerneyjarsundi 23, Hraunborgum Po Box 127,801 Selfoss , t-póst: [email protected] 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
