Hey Henry, I agree that the representation of J sentences could make a big difference to beginner understanding. I have been playing around with some of the 'boxes and arrows' for a while and would be interested in helping out. I posted some videos two years ago that show the direction that I was moving.
Visual J demo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IvgsM54cg0 Reflexive Adverb https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEocFCvnUsc The first is a more complete description of the visualization, and the second has a more refined look. I was working on a design that would show structure based on the user's interest. The left box magnifies the either in terms of visual detail or text information. If you were to go web based, it may be worthwhile looking at SVG graphics (they can be scaled and areas of the graphic can have hotspots for information probing). Let me know if you think that my skills (mostly visual with a bit of programming) could be a fit. Cheers, bob On 2012-12-28, at 10:26 AM, Henry Rich wrote: > I have written a grid-based application that displays the execution of a J > sentence in a 2-D grid and allows you to poke around and see what happened. > I hope that this will speed up the learning curve for new J users. It is a > revolutionary way to view J execution. J is one of the > few languages where such a display would work, and it might help users > overcome the barrier of visualization. > > The package is debug/dissect, downloaded from Package Manager. It works only > for J6, and that is why I am asking for a collaborator. If it just had a > better UI, with little boxes and arrows instead of a grid... > > When you download the package, make sure you update your base library, which > has updates needed for dissect. > > Once you have loaded the package, you can try it on sentences. Here is one > from recent Forum traffic: > > 20 5 0(*`%/"2@(,: (%:@* -.))@((,: , 1"1) % +/@[))10 > > clear, eh? But maybe you'd like to see it in 2D: > > ds '20 5 0(*`%/"2@(,: (%:@* -.))@((,: , 1"1) % +/@[))10' > > You can click on a cell to get more detail, or CTRL-click to get more detail > for the cell and all its ancestors. With detail, the shapes are shown, with > a slash separating the shape from the frame. When there is a modifier with a > frame, you will get a 'selector' - a bright green box where you can enter the > indexes of the cell you want to look at. Double-click the selector to edit > it, and when you press ENTER the selected operands, and the corresponding > result, will be displayed. > > Individual verbs that have a frame can be inspected by clicking the verb; > rank operators can be drilled into by clicking. You will get selectors that > you can use to go deeper. > > If your sentence blew up, ds will show you what was happening just before the > explosion. > > left =. 3 2;5 1 3;4 6 > right =. 3 2;4;,4 > left +&.> right > |length error > | left +&.>right > > Where did it blow up? > > ds 'left +&.> right' > > will take you right to the error. > > This is half-finished, pre-alpha code. I am releasing it because, as > indispensable as grid has been for prototyping, I think dissect could be > really great if freed from the formatting requirements of grid. If the > blocks were placed on the screen in pixel positions rather than grid cells, > the layout would be more compact and more stable during inspection. > > On J6, that would mean managing an isigraph. As I understand it, J7 doesn't > have isigraph controls, but it sounds like there are other graphics features > that might do the job. (The first step might be to get the grid version > working on J7.) So I am asking for someone to step up and write the screen > interface for J7. This would involve designing the new look, and then > translating my verbs that format the display (basically, I have one verb for > each J modifier) and handling clicks. I will be working on finishing the > engine. The screen-interface code that I am asking for is a small fraction > of the total code for the project. > > As of now, dissect handles verbs, nouns, and the structural modifiers: > > @ @: & &: &. &.: " ~ ` hook fork > > It also treats ] [ [: as flow control, and removes them from the display. > > Missing are the computational modifiers / ;: ^: etc. I need to handle them > one by one: decide the display, decide what selections will be supported, > then implement. This is what I will be doing next (after I finish fixing > display errors and other bugs). > > Even in its skeletal form, dissect can make learning J easier. I will be > giving it to my students to try next semester. > > Henry Rich > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
