I have not followed the entire thread and I do not know how to program in Python. Nevertheless, I would dare to suggest, even if it has been suggested already, to program in Python using the J style just as the J Source is programmed in C using the J style (I have been told). The handling of arrays might not be as difficult; one Python guru once told me that the J array concepts were influential in the Python's array handling design.
______________________________________________________________ On Fri, Dec 7, 2012 at 6:53 PM, Graham Parkhouse <graham.parkho...@ntlworld.com> wrote: > Thank you for all your responses! My thoughts are: > > 1. Give up engineering and teach J in math classes in schools. This is not > an opportunity open to me, I'm afraid Linda, for several reasons. I think I > will serve everybody best by focusing on my particular problem and helping > my colleagues to understand the issues. > > 2. Bo, your advice is straight forward, and refusing to translate it is open > to me. The job's been done, it's been used and it works. But there is a > reluctance on their part to want me to develop it further. They have only > *suggested* I might translate it into Python. > > 3. The cost in my time to rewrite in Python would be immense, educational, > taxing on a 68 year old, and could be very frustrating. I think I may begin > without being paid just to get a glimpse of the scale of the task and to > weigh up Python v. J. If they really wanted it badly, hiring a good Python > programmer to help me, as Raul suggested, would be well worthwhile, and good > fun. > > 4. David and Boyko touch on the conundrum, which is J thinking v. orthodox > (e.g. Python) thinking. My engineering colleagues are not interested in > this. They don't see this conundrum. They don't much like programming. They > like being successful at engineering. Python looks friendly and J doesn't. > Sure, this is a superficial view, but they are not interested in programming > languages or major differences between them. Indeed, they don't believe > there are major differences between any of them. > > 5. So I have a mind to do more or less what Don Kelly suggests. > > a. Learn Python > > b. Make myself available for Python programming. None of them are > professional Python programmers, so I should be able to hold my own. > > c. Experience the difference between Python and J software from the > vantage point of being an effective programmer of both. > > d. Give them the benefit of my wisdom. Show them just how easy J is to > write. My hope would be that one or two young engineers would get the idea. > But, as you can probably tell, I'm being cautious about how well this will > turn out. > > One final point. Don suggests showing different approaches in J. One of the > boasts of Python is 'There should be one-- and preferably only one --obvious > way to do it', and many engineers would like life to be like that, so that > they can quickly get on and do it. > > Regards > > 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
