Drumheller, Michael wrote: > Hello all: > > I am brand new to J. (I mean brand new as in, I heard about it for the > first time the day before yesterdy--haven't even gotten through the > first tutorial yet.) Nevertheless, having found out about it via a > mention of K on lambda-the-ultimate.org, I was immediately intrigued. I > work in the Math Group at Boeing (which is effectively an "internal > consulting firm" for applied-math & software) and am always on the > lookout for tools that might increase my group's effectiveness. FYI my > language background consists primarily of C++, Python, Perl, and Lisp. >
Welcome Michael! I strongly suggest you take a look at the first couple of chapaters of Henry Rich's book "J for C programmers" (available in the J distribution under "Help" or at http://www.jsoftware.com/jwiki/Books This makes a strong case for why programmers in structured languages should look at J. > I have two immediate worries about J that I wonder if people on this > list could assuage: > > 1. "J Programming Language" is a 562-hit Google query. That is > basically equal to zero, for large values of zero. So I am immediately > concerned that I am spending energy learning something that nobody knows > about. Is this just because J is so new? Are there strong indications > that the J community is growing in size and influence? > J is hard to search for, but it is there. The J community is small but growing. In my opinion, it does not do a good job of selling itself. This has the advantage that anything good you have heard about J is likely to be true. > 2. I was appalled at the "foo =. 3 : 0" syntax for defining a verb. I would not get hung up on this. Every language has its quirks. Perl's are too numerous to mention, and C++ does not come too far behind. These stand out to the beginner. You'll also find that J programmers routinely ignore the "use meaningful variable names" exhortation. > 3. Having just signed up for this mailing list, the first things I > noticed were the mention of Mathematica and Maple (two languages with > which, regrettably, I have little ande zero experience with, > respectively). Is is fair to regard J as a "challenger" in the > Mathematica/Maple market. Maple and Mathematica are primarily symbolic manipulation languages, something J does not set out to be. They intersect on many issues involving numerical calculation. Best wishes, John ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
