>
> Scanning quickly, this looks interesting. Also, I have to say I really
> like your blog's format.
>
>
Thanks :)
>> Effectively putting J to good use where it
>> really shines and then relying on Lisp for the rest. I think it would be
>> a very powerful cocktail, what are your thoughts?
>>
>
> This idea intrigues me. There are some things J is very good at, and some
> things it is not very good at. I've often toyed with the idea of
> interfacing J with another language that's good in a different domain
> (e.g. Perl) to increase expressiveness and productivity. But I don't mean
> writing a shell script that pipes a Perl script's output into a J script,
> I mean a native intermingling of syntax, a single script that syncretizes
> both languages to describe a problem and its solution. A creole. Just
> like your example:
>
>
Clojure lets you be really functional with all the goodness that comes
with Lisp, allowing you to produce
source code which is extraordinary concise and expressive. J however,
takes brevity to an extreme
which for many things is great, but for flow control etc, looks awful.
Thats my oppinion, yours might
differ.
> you want Lisp feedback from a native Jer: Lisp seems too verbose to be
> effective in an interactive REPL environment; a REPL language should be
> able to express large concepts in small lines. Also, I find the parens
> visually intrusive and frustrating to type (though as a Jer I'm used to
> Shift+NumberKey). But I do enjoy the concept of the simple grammar.
>
>
Lisp isn't verbose, but of course an untalented developer can make it
so. You could read
many of my X vs Y posts and see Clojure being consistently much less
verbose than the
languages I've held it up against.
RE the parens thats an argument, which you will retract yourself after
having coded Clojure
for a couple of months - you simply don't notice them anymore. Clojure
here, is different
than Scheme, CommonLisp et al
Clojure:
(defn func [arg]
(let [x 5]
x))
Common Lisp:
(defn func (arg)
(let (x 5)
x))
But anyway, that's an implementation detail.
> However, if you do end up implementing your Jisp (J-lisp creole), I might
> be presuaded to try Lisp again, if only because I know that when I hit an
> concept I can't yet express in Lisp, I can always cop out and write it in
> in J, and not waste time.
>
>
Exactly - I am a Clojurian Purist, yet I can not deny the power of J, so
a fusion would be
extremely powerful.
> There is no Java source available; J is written in C, but is not open
> source. JSoftware owns and produces the J interpreter. However, there is
> an open (if lightly documented) API available to the J engine. See
> http://www.jsoftware.com/help/user/calling_jdll.htm and in J, type
>
> open '~system\examples\dll\jdll.ijs'
>
>
Great - Just what I needed.
Thanks a lot for sharing your thoughts Mr. Bron.
/Lau
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