You may need to dig a hole in the ground. You have a great solution and good equipment that can do it with one man sitting at the controls of an excavator and it will take him one year to finish the job.
But you know there are a lot of unemployed men around who know how to handle a shovel. It will take 1000 men 30 years to do a semi decent job of it and keep them busy the rest of their lives doing maintenance so the shovel solution is a nobrainer. 2012/12/7 Bo Jacoby <bojac...@yahoo.dk> > Graham and Philip. > When an engineering problem is solved on time comes a request to destroy > the solution. Don't do it. Refuse! It is bad economy. Do some explaining > and commenting, and make simplifications and improvements on the code, but > don't translate it into an inferior language. Two versions of the same > program doubles the maintenance cost. You may be forced to find something > else to do for a living, but it is better to the soul to leave a good > solution than to stick to a bad solution. I don' know why clients always > want to destroy good solutions, but experience tells me that they do. > - Bo > > > > >Til: programm...@jsoftware.com > >Cc: Graham Parkhouse <graham.parkho...@ntlworld.com> > >Sendt: 10:49 fredag den 7. december 2012 > >Emne: Re: [Jprogramming] J v Python > > > >Graham, > > > > > > > >My experience is very similar to yours: J is excellent for solving > engineering problems on time, but then comes a request to repackage the > tool into something that non-J users can use more easily (Python if you are > lucky, Excel if you are not so fortunate, Shell if you are allowed to be > pragamatic - and which is the only one I actually get round to doing). > > > > > > > >Ideally, I would want to be able to embed J code into other more > mainstream languages (python, Lisp, Ada...) at a reasonably low level of > granularity, more or less in the same way that inline assembler is used. > Or if it really has to be done through sockets in the meanwhile, it woudld > be nice to have standard interfaces on the calling side. > > > > > > > >Philip > > > > > > > > > >> Message du 07/12/12 00:42 > >> De : "Graham Parkhouse" > >> A : programm...@jsoftware.com > >> Copie à : > >> Objet : Re: [Jprogramming] J v Python > >> > >> Mike, that's very interesting! I (aka Eve) have currently solved 160 > out of > >> 404 of the Project Euler problems, using APL then J, and my recent > progress > >> has been heavy going, so much so that I have practically given up. My > last > >> efforts were on Problem 376 in April of this year, a delightful problem > that > >> I failed to solve, disagreeing on the answer given to the mini test > problem, > >> which disheartened me. I haven't tackled any of the problems you > mention. > >> > >> But my interest in Python is for engineering software, not for Project > >> Euler. I just used a Project Euler problem as an example. This year I > >> developed an engineering package in J, paid for by a client. It was done > >> with considerable urgency to meet a need. Now it has been done the > client > >> wishes it was written in Python because he doesn't believe anyone will > be > >> able to understand J and he already has some engineers writing > elementary > >> engineering software in Python. Of course, I could only have done what > I did > >> using J -- one reason being I'm not adept in any other language -- but > it > >> was perfect for this particular job because I learned about the problem > I > >> was trying to solve as I developed the J software. J helped me to > understand > >> the problem. > >> > >> But my illustration of J v Python was given to demonstrate my client's > >> dilemma. Today a colleague in the client's office who saw the comparison > >> commended me for my programming style, and he was not referring to the J > >> code! Of course he knew he was rubbing me up the wrong way! > >> > >> For me one of the great things about J is being able to develop code by > >> trial and error. I'm not good enough to get more than very small > amounts of > >> code right the first time. But with J you can choose to make your > functions > >> small and you can test them until you get them right, using a lot of > thought > >> and minimal key strokes. When you put the functions together, since > each is > >> functioning correctly, errors in the glue are easy to fix. This way I > was > >> able to get a pretty sophisticated system to work satisfactorily without > >> visible setbacks: progress was steady to the end. > >> > >> There was no GUI. The system was run in an ijx window using a command > >> language that is pure J. The syntax of J is perfect for this. There was > no > >> user interface. > >> > >> So 'apparent readability' is my problem. Having written a masterpiece my > >> paymasters complain that they can't read it. I may begin translating it > into > >> Python as a PR exercise. I wonder how many times longer the source code > >> would be. > >> > >> Graham > >> > > > >---------------------------------------------------------------------- > >For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > -- Björn Helgason, Verkfræðingur Fornustekkum II 781 Hornafirði, t-póst: gos...@gmail.com gsm: +3546985532 twitter: @flugfiskur 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
