The Dictionary is notoriously difficult to learn the language from. It
is the fastest way to look something up once you know the language. I
love it because it it is the polished product of the great mind that
envisaged this language, and expresses the concepts in the tersest
possible way.
Most new users will find NuVoc easier to learn from. NuVoc's goal is to
be complete but also easy to get into. NuVoc spends pages to cover what
the Dictionary expresses in sentences.
The Dictionary is mostly correct, but it is incomplete. The most
accurate documentation of the language is NuVoc.
Henry Rich
On 11/22/2017 3:32 AM, Daniel Lyons wrote:
Raul,
Do you know if the documentation at http://www.jsoftware.com/help/dictionary/contents.htm
<http://www.jsoftware.com/help/dictionary/contents.htm> has been kept up-to-date with
these changes? If so, then the "last updated date" is wrong (which seems likely,
since it is older than the copyright date of 2011 on the same page)—if not, the PDF from the
earlier conversation is newer than the official dictionary. Either way it seems like something
needs to be updated.
On Nov 22, 2017, at 1:18 AM, Raul Miller <[email protected]> wrote:
Actually, I believe there have been some changes in that time period.
Specifically, May 2001 was when J4.06 was released. This included u:,
s:, assertions, try./catch./throw. keywords, and some significant
changes to the 9!: series of foreigns. Probably these changes would
have been included in a 2001-05-03 version, though technically that's
a week before the release date.
September 2002 was when J 5.01 was released. This removed [. and ].
and ]: and 11 : and 12 : a half dozen foreigns, along with a few other
changes. These changes would not have been included in a 2001-05-03
version.
And then there's the change which eliminated x., y. and so on - it
might be worth remembering when that happened, and it might be worth
going through the other versions and noting other significant changes
to the language.
These sorts of things can trip up a beginner who was expecting an
exact match between the documentation and the language. These issues
might be OK if the reader is willing to check the web site for
changes, or is willing to browse through the release notes to find all
the differences. http://www.jsoftware.com/help/user/relhigh.htm -
three clicks to find the details I mentioned here, and the first two
of those are not obvious.
Thanks,
--
Raul
On Wed, Nov 22, 2017 at 3:01 AM, Daniel Lyons <[email protected]> wrote:
On Nov 22, 2017, at 12:51 AM, bill lam <[email protected]> wrote:
The edition doesn't matter, the core j language had been stabilized 2
decades ago.
Thanks. This isn't obvious from the document, so I appreciate knowing this.
PS. J general forum is mainly used for discussion of installation issues.
It is unfortunate that its name is misleading. When unsure, post to the j
programming forum.
I'll be sure and do that in the future.
On Nov 22, 2017 12:22 PM, "Daniel Lyons" <[email protected]> wrote:
Rob,
On Nov 21, 2017, at 8:32 PM, Rob Hodgkinson <[email protected]> wrote:
So it is never really “out of date” but moreso “preserved” (perhaps one
day, after people experiment in new “dialects” and implementations
(courtesy of the open source licence) an updated edition may appear).
Oh—I really didn't mean the book itself, just that edition of the book,
since I figured the one on the website/in the addons has been updated since
then. But maybe that isn't true; the one on the website actually says
2001-5-3 versus 2002-09-10.
--
Daniel Lyons
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Daniel Lyons
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