Geoff -
I've been working with J for close to five years now and I feel that
I basically "get it" but also that I still have a lot to learn. I've been
kind of working my way down the "Vocabulary" page in terms of
learning the basic vocabulary - I'm about 3/4ths of the way down
with a few small gaps - still haven't used "$:" ("Self"), ".." ("Even"),
".:" ("Odd"), or "::" ("Adverse").
That being said, I still blank out on a lot of other people's code at
first glance. However, the beauty of the J environment is that it
allows me to run a line of code, in pieces if necessary, with minimal
set-up. Compare this to any random piece of code from a compiled
language like you might find on the web - it's often rather complicated
to get anything non-trivial to run.
There's always been a lot of traffic on some rather esoteric, definitional
topics on this forum. I find this enjoyable and enlightening up to a point
but sometimes it devolves into "how many angels can dance on the
head of a pin?" as far as I'm concerned. I find that I learn better by
starting with concrete examples than by spinning out the logical
implications
of deep abstractions. These depths are ultimately crucial to understanding
but often it's better to splash around in the shallows for a while before
swimming into the deep end.
So, I wouldn't get discouraged - it's a very different and worthwhile way of
thinking compared to that engendered by traditional languages so there's
no reason to expect it to come easily. Experimentation helps a lot, though.
Regards,
Devon
On 5/1/07, Dan Bron <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Geoff asked:
> how long should I expect it to take before I "get" J ... ?
I found yelling helped.
-Dan
----------------------------------------------------------------------
For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
--
Devon McCormick, CFA
^me^ at acm.
org is my
preferred e-mail
----------------------------------------------------------------------
For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
