I agree with your analysis (though rather than "vestigial", I'd say J's ability to build a standalone app is "mythical": it makes a great story, but it never really existed).
With that said, if the article really seeks to determine "can you build a desktop application to distribute your work?", I'd suggest that that question, and our answer, are increasingly irrelevant. So we really don't have to worry about it too much. The age of Software as a Service is here. Dumb clients, smart servers. J will provide the smart part. Web app (or mobile app) frameworks, which are plentiful, will provide the dumb part (or, phrased more positively: the pretty face in front of the great brains). -Dan On Dec 23, 2012, at 10:14 PM, Ian Clark <[email protected]> wrote: > My question was rhetorical. At least I hoped it was, and I wasn't > overlooking something. In fact I'm sorry I asked it -- at least in > this forum and not in Chat as I was going to. > > Speaking for myself I'd have no problem building a standalone app for > either Mac or Windows that used J "under the covers". Even if I > couldn't, I'm not sure it would bother me that much -- there are > plenty of ways round. But Wikipedia is a shop-window, often a one-stop > shop, when it comes to IT professionals or educated laypersons trying > to find out more about a language or software product they've heard > about. I'm simply concerned to get the story right. > > As I see it, the box in the table under consideration tries to answer > the question: what sort of support does J give for building a > recognisably professional application for sale or distribution? AFAICS > the correct answer in the light of posts on this thread is: vestigial. > Dose anyone disagree? > > There is little scope provided to answer further questions like "So > What?" or "Does it matter to you?" or "How do we fix it?". Though > there *is* scope for a brief comment or a pertinent link. > > On Sun, Dec 23, 2012 at 10:07 PM, Björn Helgason <[email protected]> wrote: >> It should be easy enough to let some compiler create a .exe file which >> could call j.exe and some script(s) like you do in a .bat file and the like >> depending on the environment. >> >> In linus this is less of an issue. >> >> I agree with you that it would be good to have a button to press that could >> create a .bat and possibly .exe with the text t.exe script >> >> I am not sure if it is less of an issue now or not. >> >> 2012/12/23 Ian Clark <[email protected]> >> >>> Terminological confusion...? >>> >>> By "standalone executable" it would seem the article means .exe or >>> .com in Windows, .app in MacOS. Not an all-in-one .ijs file that needs >>> j.exe (say) to run it. >>> >>> In the column titled: "standalone executables creation support", the >>> word "executables" is a link to the article: >>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executable >>> which makes it clear what is meant. >>> >>> Is there a button you can click and a standalone .app (or .exe) gets >>> generated -- as is the case with VB, say? I've not come across one in >>> JGTK. >>> >>> On Sun, Dec 23, 2012 at 2:3 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
