I like the python page, but I also like the J by example link I added to http://www.jsoftware.com/jwiki/Vocabulary/HowNuVoc a couple of weeks ago.
----- Original Message ----- From: Ian Clark <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Cc: Sent: Sunday, September 7, 2014 5:35 AM Subject: Re: [Jprogramming] J Kernel Minimal Beginning J fills an important gap. One I had on my list to fill urgently -- but Devon's got there first, with a surprisingly simple starter set. Good Work, Devon! Initially I was tempted to second-guess Devon by tweaking his list. Soon I was convinced that if somebody could improve upon it, that somebody wasn't me. People coming from C, Basic, Python, etc etc will straightaway say: hey where's a[3] ? Should we give them { and } ? By the same token, people coming from Fortran (and Basic) will say: hey where's GOTO? Should we give them (goto_name.)? Bear in mind that Minimal Beginning J is the first rung on a long ladder. The hitherto missing first rung! Since it already offers }. {. and # -- why not leave { and } to the second rung? What's still badly needed though is some evidence this starter set is good enough for some recognizable programming of a general nature. Not just fit for knocking down a few carefully chosen straw-men. I know little or no Python, so a visit to www.python.org is most instructive -- and very sobering. Almost the first thing a beginner like me sees is a list of "Simple programs" ( https://wiki.python.org/moin/SimplePrograms). We could do worse than rip-off this list of coding tasks *exactly* as it stands and show them in Minimal Beginning J. A sort of "Minimal Beginning Rosetta", if-you-will. I know "me-too" isn't that sexy a sport -- but is the first rung really the place for "me-only"? On Thu, Sep 4, 2014 at 4:12 AM, Scott Locklin <[email protected]> wrote: > Nice work, Devon. > One of the things I would like to do eventually is a sort of "J for > Matlab/R programmers." I figure J is vastly more useful as a general > purpose language than these, but it is also first rate for all kinds of > numerics and mathematical applications. There is a large population of math > people who would prefer something better than Matlab or R, but for most > languages, math is sort of a second class citizen. > > -SL > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > 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
