P.S. 801 not j801 in third line Sent from my iPad
> On Feb 28, 2014, at 11:56 AM, km <k...@math.uh.edu> wrote: > > Yike Lu, > > The following describes material provided in the standard library. If you > type one of the names in a J session, you will see how the name is defined. > Notice, the address says j801 (you use j701 below). > > http://www.jsoftware.com/docs/help801/user/lib_stdlib.htm > > About "In theory, this should require a simple mapping of basic concepts from > one language to another, plus a generous helping of library functions," a > simple mapping could miss J's array-processing power. Can you tell us the > pre-existing problem that you have solved earlier in another language? > > --Kip Murray > > Sent from my iPad > >> On Feb 28, 2014, at 11:18 AM, Yike Lu <yikelu.h...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >> Hey everybody, I'm new to the forum. I got involved with vector languages >> when I had to learn q for a job. I have since moved on from that job and >> lost q, so I've been looking for a suitable replacement ever since. I tried >> J here and there, but the things I learned never really stuck. I went to >> one or two meet ups at the NYJUG (met Devon there). My programming >> background includes C++, R, q, python, and a sprinkling of Scheme. >> >> I decided to pick up learning J again. I have some feedback on the first >> few hours that I went through, hopefully it's useful information and others >> have the same problems: >> >> 1. I wanted to tackle a problem I already had, or already have solved. Data >> being what it is, that usually means a pre-existing data set, often in CSV >> format. >> 2. I found the csv package, quite nice. >> 3. For some reason my Qt IDE broke. So I had to use jconsole and pacman. >> This took me longer than expected to find. Until then, I was just praying >> the IDE would come back so I could use the package manager. >> 4. JDB specifically -- no mention of the JMF dependency? Bad call. I was >> confused for 20 minutes. >> 5. load operator syntax and path -- where is this documented? I figured out >> the JHOME/addons directory is part of it. Can I add to or change it the >> path? >> 6. How to load a script? load confused me because the syntax suggested it >> loads the whole directory (although I later found out this wasn't the >> case). I eventually found >> http://www.jsoftware.com/docs/help701/learning/26.htm >> 7. Locales? A lot of the packages use more advanced features like OOP and >> locales, and it's very disorienting at first, especially with the non >> standard Name__Locale syntax. >> >> At the end of the day, my use case and learning approach can be summed up >> as follows: >> * I have a pre existing problem that I have solved. I would like to be able >> to use J to solve it, potentially more quickly or more elegantly. >> * In theory, this should require a simple mapping of basic concepts from >> one language to another, plus a generous helping of library functions. >> * How do I do it in J? Take a direct, focused approach to getting the >> basics handled (data loading and selection for example). This gets me to a >> stable point of reference. >> * What can I do next in J? This is more exploratory learning. I have the >> data loaded and I know how to do basic operations. Build on this knowledge. >> >> The wiki documentation so far makes this unnecessarily painful. Remember we >> don't have a meaningful StackOverflow presence or easily Google-able >> answers. There's a million tutorials on how to do basic array >> manipulations, and they're all front and center. The OO, script loading, >> locales seemed to be buried further back. >> >> Also, my general feeling reading through the docs is that they're pretty >> scattered on those topics. >> >> I've started a github repo where I'm keeping some utilities I'm developing >> around table manipulation: https://github.com/yikelu/j_table >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >> 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
