I find it interesting to try to create things in J and make combinations into solutions of something.
I also find it interesting to take apart something others have made and see what the individual parts are doing. Many of the examples and demos that come with J are so clever that it takes a long time to figure out what in the world makes it work. I was lucky to come aboard before the onsets of locales and oop. It can be difficult sometime to figure out why a thing answers to a call until you figure out that it is in a path set in a locale. So you have to check out a number of objects and sometimes they are in a named locale and sometimes a numbered locale and it may an extension of something. Debug as such may be of value even if I hardly ever touch it but prefer to pepper code with smoutput if I can not readily deduct what the code is producing. Another obstacle can be that utilities in J are sometimes calling on the surrounding. There are a number of very clever labs and they often explain very well what the secrets are behind some magical things. I find that sometimes are looking for some very clever coding when just simple programming will do or there may be some utilities available to use. The number one rule is to take things slowly and learn bits and pieces and enjoy know ever more as time goes by. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
