Sherlock, Thanks for your response. Some of the questions that I have following up to your answers are: 1. Is there an equivalent of MAXWS in Dyalog APL in J? 2. Are there any examples of C# interaction with J? 3. Can one produce word documents from J. From what I see in Publish, it seems mainly for PDF output reports. I guess one could easily generate HTML output and rely on the MS WORD HTML processor to get the equivalent Word files. Correct? 4. Is the NYCJUG forum open to rank newbies like me :) Thanks, -Amit
On Mon, Apr 21, 2008 at 11:18 PM, Sherlock, Ric <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Thanks for the info Amit, > I'm sure other are better qualified to give you guidance here, (and so I'm > happy to be corrected by others if I'm wrong!) nevertheless my thoughts are > as follows: > > I think you will be able to create an effective interface using a J GUI > fine, but if you want a pretty interface then the C# road will probably be > the way to go. > > If your data is essentially one big database table, then I think that > using one or more J arrays to store and manipulate your data will be much > simpler, faster and more flexible than storing the data in a database. > > I don't think there are any requirements specified that would be a problem > for J. > > Some resources you might find useful are: > * The grid demo: Studio|Demos...|grid > * http://www.jsoftware.com/jwiki/Grid > * Chris pointed you to http://www.jsoftware.com/jwiki/DB which I would > second. > - The links under Data Models may be useful for deciding how to manage > your data within J. > - Some of the other links may be useful for interfacing with databases > for importing data > * The controls demo (Studio|Demos...|controls) will give you an idea of > what controls are available in a J GUI. > * The Publish Addon may be useful for creating reports: > http://www.jsoftware.com/jwiki/Publish > > I'm sure (never having been myself ;-)) that you would be welcome at the > NYCJUG meetings. http://www.jsoftware.com/jwiki/NYCJUG > > > ---amit bolakani wrote: > > Hi guys, > > Thanks for all the responses. I really appreciate all you > > guys trying to > > help me out with my problem. And I think I owe you guys a > > better explanation > > of the problem. This is an interesting set of requirements > > and I don't know > > if something like this has been done with J before. Here is > > what I am trying > > to achieve: > > I want to build a tool for Windows which will have a GUI > > based interface and > > will be able to interface with: > > 1. Databases (SQL, Oracle, Mysql etc) > > 2. Excel and CSV files > > 3. Text files > > These interfaces will be used to pull data into the tool. > > While inputting > > the data, I want the user to be able to specify some data > > transformations on > > the incoming data and also be able to add new user defined > > columns in the > > dataset which would be derived from already existing columns. > > Once I have > > imported this data I would want to have the ability to store > > it in memory so > > that I can easily manipulate it. The tool should be > > restricted only by the > > amount of RAM on the PC (ideally something like MAXWS that > > Dyalog APL has). > > Ideally I would want to build an in memory database so that I > > have easy > > access and manipulation capabilities. I would then like to > > run things like > > frequency reports, averages, means, variances of the various > > columns and the > > like on the data and show reports and produce output > > excel/csv/word files. > > I think J could be ideal for such a project though I am a newbie to J > > programming. > > There are 2 approaches that I have been considering before I dive in: > > 1. Use a C# front end for the GUI and Excel/CSV/DB interfaces > > and read the > > data into a SQLite database while operating it in an > > in-memory mode. Though > > I am not sure how I would easily be able to apply column > > transformations and > > add new columns (would the transformations be done in J and > > the new columns > > be added using SQLite) and moreover what the performance of > > this would be > > for large files (like say a million records -- basically > > limited by the PC > > RAM size). With this approach I would use J for processing > > the operations. > > Note that I don't need to persist the data -- so I would effectively > > construct an temporary in memory db session with SQLite (and > > I understand > > that SQLite already has an addon for J). > > 2. Use J for GUI and use an in memory database (I don't think > > anything is > > happening with jdatabase project for extending J with database > > capabilities?) like kdb (I believe there is an addon for J with kdb as > > well). I would also in this approach use J for the processing the > > operations. > > Lastly, I would want to give the users the capability to > > apply operations on > > the data and the set of operations should only be restricted > > by the rich > > functionality that is offered by J. I would want to basically > > map the user > > defined operations easily onto J operations, almost as if the > > user defined > > operations are disguised J operations. > > I am still not sure if J can handle all the above > > requirements and all your > > inputs would be extremely valuable to help me make my decision. > > All in all, I want to build an analytical database with rich > > user defined > > functionality with is only restricted by the features > > offered by J and > > want to have optimum performance (in seconds) without the > > need to persist > > the data and do it all on Windows with a GUI. > > Thanks to everyone in advance. > > -Amit > > NOTE: If there are any J experts in NYC, I would like to sit > > down with them > > (if they are kind enough and interested enough to spend time > > on this) and > > work out more details > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
