Thanks, Dan. I wanted to add something gnomic, but you've said it all better than I could.
Just one thing I'll dispute: I didn't "lead" the "Accessible Dictionary" project: I merely made it my self-appointed task to bring up the trailing edge. Because I can't think of anything more valuable for the wider uptake of J. Early 2010 a dozen or so people put some very clear and detailed thought into the "Accessible Dictionary" and built a solid framework that over 3 years later I see no scope or reason to improve on. 118 templates were created and painstakingly x-reffed, of which 40 have been drafted to-date. It just needs an army of grunts to fill-in the templates and finish the job. I still fill-in the occasional one -- when I feel too zonked to do anything smarter. It's crushingly dull, repetitive work. There is no scope to show off. The only gratitude you'll get is backhanded -- every year or two someone reinvents the idea. If that doesn't put you off, go to http://www.jsoftware.com/jwiki/ControlNuVoc and read it carefully. End-user access is via: http://www.jsoftware.com/jwiki/NuVoc Once finished, the NuVoc page will replace: http://www.jsoftware.com/jwiki/Vocabulary as the royal road into J primitives for the absolute beginner. It will never replace http://jsoftware.com/help/dictionary/vocabul.htm and was never meant to. On Sun, Oct 6, 2013 at 9:03 PM, Dan Bron <[email protected]> wrote: > 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
