Thanks Ric. Pure gold. A few comments in-line...
Ian On Sun, Oct 31, 2010 at 10:51 PM, Sherlock, Ric <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Ian, > > Firstly I like the idea of the article - IMO it fills a bit of a void in the > current available documentation of a higher level overview on how to use/work > in the J environment. There is really good stuff on the details of the > language itself, but not so much on the environment. > > Some suggestions/impressions: > > CALC=: noun define > Using this format (rather than 0 : 0) means that the form editor will no > longer recognize your noun as a form and won't let you edit it. It would be > nice if the form editor were a bit smarter and recognized both formats but it > doesn't. Might be worthwhile pointing out that trade off to the reader. That fact had escaped me. Rather vital, that. > "handler define" - I can see the advantages of this in helping document your > app, however the noun "handler" isn't defined by default in the J standard > library and doesn't seem to be defined in calc.ijs so I end up with a "domain > error: define" when I try to run the calc.ijs window. I'm going off the idea. The novice is likely to need "crutches" which the standard installation doesn't provide. This isn't really one of them. > I would suggest that you highlight to your reader any of the things that you > have found useful additions to the J environment and show them how they can > add them to their own installed environment, that way it will be clear that > these are things that they shouldn't expect to be available in every J > session. Alternatively you could concentrate on introducing the reader to the > J environment as it is and save those customizations for a separate article - > "Tips and tricks for customizing/improving the J environment". I'm already thinking of an article: J: The Morning After. I'll need clearer distinction between what comes as standard and what are my add-ins. That was the idea of handy.ijs, but the notion hasn't quite got off the ground. > I think in an earlier edition you mentioned that the words noun, verb, > conjunction etc were all defined in the stdlib.ijs. The J6.02 version of this > script contains a lot of comments and descriptions, I'd recommend suggesting > to the reader to open and inspect the script: > open '~system/main/stdlib.ijs' Didn't know that about the comments. Is that version of stdlib still available -- say in the wiki? If I locate it, I might put it there, just to support the article. > These comments are (unfortunately IMO) removed from the stdlib.ijs script, > and other distributed scripts in the J701 beta. > > Although monadic ". (Do) corresponds better with APL's {execute} function my > preference would be to use dyadic ". (Numbers) in the verb eval to convert > the string to a number. Eg: {. 0 ". '0',y Wondered about that. I was planning a more elaborate 'eval' anyway. But as it stands, it invites extension -- and that was the idea. I could write a section just on (".). But it's too specialised for the (narrow) scope of the article -- and anyway the APLer has been through all of it before, with APL. > As a reader I'm not a fan of the tinyurls used as references in the article, > they break up the train of thought and don't have any meaning in and of > themselves and so don't give me any idea of what I'm going to get when I > click on them. I'd much rather the links be hyperlinked text (not urls) > describing/referring to the resource, and using the correct URL in the > reference enables me to mouseover the hyperlink and see a meaningful URL. I'm experimenting with TinyURLs. They have little value in the wiki, but a lot (IMO) in a printed article, where they take the place of (numeric) references. The idea was, they're easy for a beginner to jot down in a notebook. They are resolved in the Reference list at the end. However the Vector editor may scratch the lot of them and replace them by straight reference numbers, [1], [2], etc. That's not hard to do. Might do it in the wiki too. It's a decision I can defer. > As an APL user who started using J in 2007, I'd disagree with any advice that > APL knowledge is of no use and that APL users should start from scratch - > something you also believe in, hence the article. In my early J learning > journey I found Henry Rich's J Reference card indispensible for helping me > find the appropriate word to accomplish the operation I was after. Because > not all the J words have APL equivalents it is a useful addition/extension to > the APL2J phrasebook. Disappointingly, I found the J Reference card a lot less use than I'd hoped it would be, and soon gave it up. Back in the days when we Brits had to learn Russian for scientific purposes, you could get the entire Russian grammar on a single laminated card. I've still got it. But you have to know a lot of Russian already before it's much use. This is not to say that others won't find it useful, so I'll give it more prominence. It's all very much my idiosyncratic view of what's useful in the available J training material -- and what isnt. (Roger's not speaking to me any more.) What's really needed to support the article is to finish off NuVoc. > Thanks again for this fine contribution to the community! You're welcome. Thanks for the encouragement. > Ric > >> From: Ian Clark >> Sent: Thursday, 28 October 2010 15:28 >> >> http://www.jsoftware.com/jwiki/JinaDay >> >> Thanks to all for crits, and for provocative & instructive >> discussions. It doesn't escape me that a lot of people have really >> spent time to debug it. >> >> 1st draft done. Extensive edits. Most people's suggestions >> incorporated (I've not checked everyone's is in, but I will). Demo app >> CALC somewhat improved, behaviour more intuitive, focus problem >> hopefully solved. Correct (?) use of the term "array" -- which has >> proved useful after all. >> >> LOBROW will need some spit&polish before final publication. Ditto >> handy.ijs. >> >> Haven't checked that all weblinks are actually used in the text. On >> the other hand there may be more that ought to be mentioned. Virtually >> no mention of the J Primer, which IMO is an omission. >> >> Ian > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
