== Report of Meeting 2023-05-11 == Present: Ed Gottsman, Dave Lambert , Raul Miller, and Bob Therriault
Full transcripts of this meeting are now available on the its wiki page. https://code.jsoftware.com/wiki/Wiki/Report_of_Meeting_2023-05-11 1) The began with Raul sharing an animation of a rotating F that he ran through the J Playground. tinyurl.com/rotatingF This was in response to Ed asking about ways that the J wiki viewer might by converted to a browser based environment. Raul explained that there was three lines of J in the script, about 2/3 of the code was shader instructions and 1/3 was JavaScript. Ed said he is not a big fan of JavaScript but was more comfortable with the shaders. For more details it would be best to reference the transcript. Bob raised the point that JHS might be an option as well. Raul pointed out that JHS requires J to be downloaded and the J Playground is browser based. Both use JavaScript syntax to interact with the DOM. 2) Raul then explained that this video involved ray marching as a more efficient way to create the animation. Again, details can be found in the transcript. Raul provided the link to https://www.shadertoy.com/ where there are many examples of ray marching. Raul mentioned that we might require more documentation about how the J Playground interacts with the DOM as Ed tries to implement the J Wiki Visualization Tool in the browser.Bob said that he would contact Joe Bogner to find out how available he might be to help out. Ed would be copied as well. 3) Bob was unable to meet with Stephen yet, but was planning to go over the interface with him next week. Ed said that he was getting good feedback from the Aaron Ash of the NYCJUG meeting and was still looking forward to include more people in the test. Ed wondered what the best way to distribute was and it was suggested that Chris Burke be contacted to see whether this would be the best strategy. Bob said that he would and copy Ed on that as well. 4) Bob talked to Eric about updating the Primer https://code.jsoftware.com/wiki/Category:Primer_R.6.3 and got a positive response. The titles of the pages have been updated so that the pages are presented in the correct order. Bob felt that he might look at incorporating some of the advantages of the wiki such as hyper links to provide a richer experience for newcomers. The structure of the Primer might be focussed on transitioning beginners to more advanced applications. The Primer currently shows Plot and developing GUI's (which is out of date). There may be more examples added that might encourage application development. Ed suggested that many current users of J are focussed on Math and he felt that there is more use as a general purpose language for application development. Bob felt that the language has that potential, but might require more instruction and libraries to be able to attract developers. 5) Bob showed off the work that Henry Rich has been doing with the Share My Screen section https://code.jsoftware.com/wiki/ShareMyScreen which explains Advent of Code solutions and that this is aimed more at the advanced programmer or at least a programmer who is familiar with the language. This type of content is welcomed and would be very useful in providing content to the Advanced (formerly Developers) section of the wiki. 6) Bob looked for direction on the way that the Primer should be developed. Bob felt that he wanted to make more use of visuals and diagrams in the way that Roger Stokes' "Learning J". https://code.jsoftware.com/wiki/Category:Learning_J_R.6.2 It would take into account the audience and would not be overly cute, but more functional in the way that the diagrams could explain concepts. 7) Dave wondered whether there might be more primitives to support the general use of J beyond the math primitives. Bob felt that with so many existing primitives that more libraries would be required to provide the resources. Ed wondered whether the size of the J languages was one of the challenges that it faces. Bob felt that the Primer handles this by introducing the primitives in a way that gradually builds from simple to more complex primitive and uses the functionality as a motivator for the increasing complexity. 8) A short discussion about how J's primitives do not alway suggest the action and so those unfamiliar with the primitives have to learn their uses before they feel comfortable with the language. Dave mentioned the inflections of dots and colons does help. Bob pointed out that this is true, but recognizing that part of the language still has to be learned. For access to previous meeting reports https://code.jsoftware.com/wiki/Wiki_Development If you would like to participate in the development of the J wiki please contact us on the general forum and we will get you an invitation to the next J wiki meeting held on Thursdays at 23:00 (UTC) Next meeting is May 18th, 2023. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
