> I certainly hope others will waste, er, spend as much time as I did to > provide some body of short demos to showcase J.
:-) On Wed, Nov 17, 2010 at 3:13 PM, Devon McCormick <[email protected]> wrote: > Ian - > > I think there's a little too much emphasis on grammar and syntax. As > always, I favor practical examples. However, a certain amount of > introductory grammar is probably unavoidable if there's to be a chance that > people will get any sense of understanding the code examples. > > For the presentation I put together, the audience was coders who are > interested in languages and the mandate was to show code. I did include the > nearly gratuitous plots to show how easy it is to quickly get impressive > results with minimal set-up. > > I have ideas for alternate versions of this exercise in which I show how > easy it is to do ad-hoc data manipulation. Something like lab would be a > good idea, especially as it would lend itself well to a live demo. > > I've noticed how the Dyalog APL presenters have built themselves a tool > which allows them to play canned user inputs in much the way a lab works - > this seems essential for streamlining any such "live" presentation. > > I certainly hope others will waste, er, spend as much time as I did to > provide some body of short demos to showcase J. > > Regards, > > Devon > > On Wed, Nov 17, 2010 at 2:09 AM, Ian Clark <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Like Marshall I'd be inclined to shift focus away from grammar and syntax. >> >> I remember, when first coming to J, being most impressed by Studio > >> Labs... --the message of simplicity they delivered -- and hadn't met >> since FORTH. I was keen to know what contributed to it and made it >> possible. >> >> Notably "Plot package". For so many years I'd met so many plotting >> packages on so many platforms and I wondered why they couldn't all >> have been that simple. >> >> What still stuns me about J is the inspired absence of crap when >> interfacing with the outside world (viewmat, plot, wd...), achieving >> cross-platform application development almost as a side-effect. >> >> Mine is an extreme view, and I offer it only as a counterbalance to >> what I imagine most J-ers would showcase to a total newcomer, viz its >> grammar and syntax, at work on some impressive mathematical task. >> >> Horses for courses, however. Who's the audience? Mostly research >> mathematicians? Or coding hacks like me? >> >> But I'd say even research mathematicians will be most impressed, not >> by the J approach to their particular line of expertise, but what they >> hope from their computer and don't want to muck around with >> themselves: viz display and storage of a result and employing it in >> some other domain. >> >> Can we have the result(s) of Devon's exercise in the form of a Lab, please? >> >> Already "Labs" has 4 introductions to J (A J Introduction; A Taste of >> J; An Idiosyncratic Introduction to J; An Introductory Course in J) -- >> but I fancy there's room for a fifth from Devon, from his present >> far-seeing perspective. >> >> Ian >> >> >> >> >> On Wed, Nov 17, 2010 at 1:13 AM, Marshall Lochbaum >> <[email protected]> wrote: >> > I would be tempted to forego grammar and show some linear algebra in J. >> > Maybe use the example Mr. Rich offered a while ago for finding if a line >> > segment intersects a ball: >> > C (R >: +/&.:*:)@:([- ]* 0>.1<.%.)&(-&S) E >> > with center C, radius R, and endpoints E and S. >> > Trains and &. are a must, and are covered in this example. >> > In fact, a solid five minutes would just be to get this expression >> across. >> > >> > Marshall >> > >> > -----Original Message----- >> > From: [email protected] >> > [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Roger Hui >> > Sent: Tuesday, November 16, 2010 6:58 PM >> > To: Programming forum >> > Subject: Re: [Jprogramming] Presenting J at the "Language Slapdown" this >> > week >> > >> > If I only have 5 minutes then I would try to get across the following >> > points: >> > >> > - Verbs apply to nouns to produce nouns. >> > - "Everything" is a noun. >> > - Adverbs apply to verbs to produce verbs. >> > >> > The examples would be tailored to the audience. >> > e.g. In NYC I would have a VWAP example. >> > >> > >> > >> > ----- Original Message ----- >> > From: Devon McCormick <[email protected]> >> > Date: Tuesday, November 16, 2010 15:01 >> > Subject: Re: [Jprogramming] Presenting J at the "Language Slapdown" this >> > week >> > To: Programming forum <[email protected]> >> > >> >> This just in (from the organizer of the Slapdown): >> >> >> >> > I have received a large number of cancellations from >> >> presenters in the >> >> last five days. So, instead of 16 languages we are down to 7. >> >> > This small number defeats the purpose of the event, so I am >> >> going to >> >> cancel it. >> >> >> >> Nurts! >> >> >> >> Thanks to all who offered suggestions. It's not a total waste as I >> >> now have a 5-minute J intro at the ready. >> >> >> >> For those of you with ideas on how to go about this, it might be >> >> worthwhileto put together your own 5-minute intro. I'd like to see >> >> how others approach this. Especially interesting would be some "live" >> >> demos: I had >> >> planned to assemble a lab to do this before I realized that the >> >> presentations were supposed to be canned. >> >> >> >> I'm sure Raul (see below) is correct about my attempt as I did skim >> >> through the pages with the graphs in my rehearsals in order to keep >> >> within the time limit. However, part of my strategy was to give >> >> people something interesting to look back to as this presentation >> >> would have been availableon-line. >> >> >> >> On Tue, Nov 16, 2010 at 2:04 PM, Raul Miller <[email protected]> >> >> wrote: >> >> >> >> > You will probably see this too late. >> >> > >> >> > In my opinion, you are still trying to present too much for five >> >> > minutes. Those pages are very busy, and I think they present too >> >> > much for a five minute presentation. >> >> > ... >> > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >> > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm >> > >> > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >> > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm >> > >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >> 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 > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
