I also didn't know that NuVoc existed. The backtick example is structured in a way that clicks with my brain. I particularly like the uses simple & advanced.
Let me preface my next comment with the following - overall I think the J documentation is very good. I am immensely grateful for all the work that others have put into it and made freely available (Learning J, J For C, all the labs, the J reference card) There are gaps that can be frustrating. Most of the work I've done so far has been heavily depending upon i., E., e., I. ~. /.The standard vocabulary pages are light on information: http://www.jsoftware.com/help/dictionary/dicapdot.htm, http://www.jsoftware.com/help/dictionary/didot.htm. Unfortunately I. and i. can't be effectively searched either. I've taken to grepping the labs for terms to better understand them. I've also tried going through the labs from start to finish. The material is fairly dense so it doesn't always stick when I need to go back to figure something out. As a parallel, I read several books on clojure and it didn't stick for me until I went though exercises like https://github.com/functional-koans/clojure-koans and http://www.4clojure.com/. Both really sped up my learning. Of course, I still had to find the answer! J's labs give answers (sometimes a whole page of answers at a time). I'm not always certain what questions the answers are to. That's what is great about the NuVoc example -- it gives uses too. Another style of learning resource - http://learnxinyminutes.com/ It would also be great to find more longer examples of applications. Rosettacode is a good resource (http://rosettacode.org/wiki/Category:J). J's phrases are sometimes like a language-to-language dictionary. I can learn several different ways to say "Where is the nearest train station" in the native language, but not enough to have a conversation. I haven't yet stumbled upon any examples that come to mind that are a complete application. I know that may be a nebulous and can brainstorm some ideas if desired. Some books that I've enjoyed with different styles: http://www.gigamonkeys.com/book/ - practical common lisp http://landoflisp.com/ http://learnyouahaskell.com/chapters http://c.learncodethehardway.org/book/<http://c.learncodethehardway.org/book/ex30.html> http://web.archive.org/web/20041022042401/http://www.kx.com/technical/documents/kusrlite.pdftakes the reader through building a simple ATM app I apologize for the long rant. This probably is more a chat type response. Again, I am grateful for all the work that has been made available to learners such as myself On Sun, Oct 6, 2013 at 4:29 PM, Pascal Jasmin <[email protected]>wrote: > That looks quite good. I was thinking there could be a stub for each page > under /help, and the help pages would add that stub at the bottom. Even if > the stub is currently empty, there would be an obvious way to add to the > vocabulary. > > Even though NuVoc looks good, few people know it exists. > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Dan Bron <[email protected]> > To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> > Cc: > Sent: Sunday, October 6, 2013 4:03:22 PM > Subject: Re: [Jprogramming] Possible error in the dictionary for dyadic > take > > We had an initiative like this a few years back, led by Ian Clark: > > http://www.jsoftware.com/jwiki/NuVoc > > Rather than starting afresh, I recommend we reinvigorate that project, > since it already has some content, and some thought went into its structure. > > I think where it stalled, the last time, was it never got a critical mass > of volunteers writing up articles. Not sure how to address that this time > around. Personally, I wrote an article or two, and would do more, but I > find just filling out templates for the sake of it dull, and without > feedback the drudgery eventually discourages me. > > That said, if someone had a specific article they'd like written up, or > have a specific need they're currently addressing, I'd be happy to > contribute an article on that topic. Requests? > > For reference, the entry on tie (`) [1] typifies the kind of article I'm > contemplating. Articles on higher level concepts, such as function > composition or verb trains or grammar, etc, while ultimately necessary, > would be a different task. > > -Dan > > > [1] NuVoc entry on tie (`): > http://www.jsoftware.com/jwiki/Vocabulary/backtick > > > Please excuse typos; composed on a handheld devi > > On Oct 6, 2013, at 3:13 PM, Raul Miller <[email protected]> wrote: > > > I have had similar thoughts but not enough motivation to address many > > of the issues. > > > > That said, I did manage to throw together (an earlier draft of) this > > page, back around then: > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rank_(J_programming_language) > > > > If we could get a few hundred people to each write a page, all we'd > > just need a good table of contents to have a community written > > dictionary. > > > > -- > > Raul > > > > On Sun, Oct 6, 2013 at 2:24 PM, Pascal Jasmin <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> A slightly different issue with vocabulary entries is that some of them > are written at an Iverson/Hui PHD student reading level, and while the > reader might be advised to spend some time with an interactive J session to > better understand the content, the reader may wish to prioritize his time > differently, possibly with the hope of living a fulfilling life without > grasping the detail that is above his reading level. > >> > >> One solution to this would be to keep the head of the vocabulary pages > on the web site, but allow users to contribute further explanations, and/or > examples, as an attached wiki. Perhaps some stack exchange/reddit-like > up/down voting by users would let the most helpful contributions float to > the top of the wiki. > >> > >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
