Fair enough. Now, if in 140 characters your goal was to convince a stranger to investigate J, what would you write?
-Dan -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Roger Hui Sent: Friday, June 10, 2011 12:27 PM To: Programming forum Subject: Re: [Jprogramming] One word description of J jtweet=: 0 : 0 J is a programming language that works with arrays, verbs, and adverbs. For example, +/x computes the sum of array x and /:~x sorts it. ) # jtweet 138 ----- Original Message ----- From: Dan Bron <[email protected]> Date: Friday, June 10, 2011 9:12 Subject: Re: [Jprogramming] One word description of J To: 'Programming forum' <[email protected]> > > Why is the description restricted to one word? > > Why are haikus restricted to 17 syllables? > > Anyway, the contemporary version of the elevator pitch is a tweet. > > Can you capture J in 140 characters, or less? > > -Dan > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] > [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Roger Hui > Sent: Friday, June 10, 2011 11:31 AM > To: Programming forum > Subject: Re: [Jprogramming] One word description of J > > I think the premise of this discussion is flawed. > Why is the description restricted to one word? > > There is an alternative, the "elevator conversation". > You know, you've met a stranger in an elevator and you have > to sell your idea during the elevator ride. What would you say? > I've had some success using the +/x example. If there > is more time it can easily extend into +/"r x . If there is > more time still I might use avg=:+/%# and avg"r x . > > In January 2000, I was at the Iverson Software booth at the > AMS meeting at Washing DC, http://keiapl.info/anec/#NSA1 > giving people who dropped by 10 minute presentations on > the computer. The presentation was later codified as the > lab > "An Idiosyncratic Introduction to J". Ken later expanded > that > into the lab "A J Introduction", 14 chapters of which the first > is the "Idiosyncratic Introduction". (Ken was so verbose!) > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Devon McCormick <[email protected]> > Date: Friday, June 10, 2011 7:01 > Subject: Re: [Jprogramming] One word description of J > To: Programming forum <[email protected]> > > > My favorite adjective to describe J is "succinct". > > However, the limitation > > of this single word fails to capture other important features > of the > > language such as its power and clean, careful, extensible design. > > > > Perhaps a more interesting exercise is to assemble a 30-second > > or a 5-minute > > introduction to the language. My own attempt (introduced at > > > http://www.jsoftware.com/jwiki/DevonMcCormick/LanguageSlapdown, > > presentation.JPGs at > > > http://www.jsoftware.com/jwiki/DevonMcCormick/PresentingJIn5Minutes)suffers > from trying to cram too much into 5 minutes. I doubt more than one > > person in a hundred would actually understand the bulk of this talk. > > > > It's a lot more work than coming up with a single word, but > the > > J community > > would benefit from having an arsenal of short presentations > like this. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
