> (Changed subject to reflect new topic -- BTW we *really* need a name
> for this project)
Agree.
Ric Sherlock wrote:
> Yes I agree that using colour is probably the best solution here.
I love the "educational" use of color to highlight, distinguish, and
code information, but there's a design accessibility reminder involved:
about 20% of males are color-blind.
Skip Cave wrote:
> The main issue is how to arrange the symbols on the vocabulary page.
> > ... The best way to arrange the vocabulary would be some order that
> the newbie can recognize. Since practically no one remembers the
> ASCII sequence for the non-alpha characters such as # % ^ & *, etc.
> that probably isn''t a particularly good choice.
I faced this problem when I was developing my J pages for fellow
neophytes. I just arbitrarily used the QWERTY keyboard (I realize
there are other keyboard arrangements in other areas of the world). I
put the primitives in keyboard order (symbols, numbers, letters, top to
bottom, left to right, unshifted, shifted, none-dot-colon).
Illustrative portions of the full set (I never actually used the full
set, but only selections for starting out):
` `: ~ ~. ~: ! !. !: ... [ [: { {. {: ... / /. /: ? ?. _1: _2: ... _9:
0: 1: 2: ... 8: 9: a. a: A. ...
Not the world's greatest arrangement by any means, but in a hotlinked
space-saving horizontal list of symbols (which then displayed details
and examples for each) one could find symbols more quickly by knowing
they were toward the beginning (upper left of keyboard), around the
middle, or toward the end (lower right of keyboard) of the list of
primitives. (As noted above, there are three subgroupings within the
list: symbols, numbers, and letters. Because my lists were relatively
short, I merely concatenated these groupings. In a full list, it might
be better to visually separate the symbols, numbers, and letters.)
Here is an email-ized version of what the index to my mini-dictionary
looked like:
=====================================================================
Alphabetical Lists of Selected Verb Descriptions:
Monadic verb symbols in keyboard order (top to bottom, left to right,
symbols, letters, unshifted, shifted):
~. ~: # $ [ {. {: ] }. }: \: \:~ |. |: ; ". ": , ,. ,: < > /: /:~ i. I.
Dyadic verb symbols in keyboard order:
# $ =. =: [ { {. ] } }. ; ;. " ". , ,. ,: E. i. i:
Other symbols (adverbs, conjunctions, nouns) in keyboard order:
~ @ ^:_1 & &.> &> \ n\ \. n\. / a. a:
Verb names: [on the web page, these are five parallel columns]
ace
alphabet
amend
append
atop
behead
bond
box
copy
curtail
cut
default format
drop
each
every
from
grade down
grade up
head
index of
index of last
indices
infix
insert
integers
inverse
is (global)
is (local)
itemize
laminate
left
link
member of interval
nub
nub sieve
numbers
open
outfix
passive
prefix
rank conjunction
ravel
ravel items
raze
same
reshape
reverse
right
shape
shape of
sort down
sort up
stitch
suffix
tail
take
tally
transpose
=====================================================================
For a beginner, having both symbols and "official" textual names is
useful because the symbol/name links take a while to "glue" together in
the mind and, when searching, you might remember one but not the other.
I should perhaps mention that my mini-dictionary was partitioned into
categories. Here's the other (categorical) index I created:
=====================================================================
Functional ("How Do I...?") List of Verb Descriptions:
(These useful verbs deal mostly with array manipulation;
mathematical and financial verbs can be found in the
Vocabulary and Phrases)
Informational/Assignment Verbs
Changing Data Type
Changing Order
Changing Shape
Assembling/Creating Lists/Arrays (plus "cheatsheet")
Disassembling Lists/Arrays
Selecting/Changing/Finding Data in Lists/Arrays
Miscellaneous Actions
=====================================================================
FWIW. Maybe these examples brought some humor to your day! ;-)
Harvey
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