I too have felt the need for Really Prominent Pages (RPPs?) and I've regretfully come to conclude that the only workable solution for the beginner is the forum, as Dan hints. Hence certain issues will turn up over and over again in the threads.
Experienced programmers, trying to pick-up J from the reference manual as they go along, are especially vulnerable. What "experience" can prepare you for J? Trains are indeed a pratfall, and I think it boils down to this. When you see f g h noun NB. (1) even if you've read and re-read all the stuff about J's bracketing rules, you're still tempted to think you can write: v=: f g h NB. (2) v noun ...and it gives a different result. So you begin to suspect J is only for people addicted to brain-teasers. It doesn't help to be told that (2) is a "train" and (1) isn't. (sic) But I didn't start this thread just to gripe (yet again) about the opaqueness of J and its documentation. Researching computer (un)usability and how to fix it has been my career, and I was drawn into J in the first place by these very considerations. It has proved a rich hunting-ground, even more so than APL, which hitherto had been the best I'd encountered. Industrial experience has taught me you need to spend millions to write good documentation -- unless you want to stick to telling people things they know perfectly well already, which J emphatically doesn't. Oh, don't get the idea I only value J the way a doctor values a sick patient. Having climbed the learning curve, it's my language of choice, and I don't regret it. Why, I'd even pay good money for it. (And if you're an APL user you say that with a gulp!) On Fri, Nov 30, 2012 at 2:50 AM, Alex Giannakopoulos <aeg...@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote: > I agree that all this needs more and *clear* and *visible* explanation! > It was the first question I asked, and in the two+ years (on-and-off) that > I have been mucking around with J I have seen asked on this forum umpteen > times. > I have also seen it debated at length (and breadth and depth). By > experienced users, experts and newbies alike. Unfortunately these > discussions get buried in the (not easily searchable) list archives and the > question keeps popping up, kind of like Nosferatu. > > Maybe we need a REALLY prominent page explaining it once and for all. > I must add that for someone coming from another language, the idea of > trains is massively alien (and a pain until you see their utility). > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
