Bo Jacoby <[email protected]> writes: > "Tacit definitions can get difficult to read." Programs are not read - > they are deciphered! That is the case with all programming > languages. The compactness of J programs makes the deciphering slower > per line, but not per unit of functionality.
Far be it from me to weigh in seriously against the comments made here, for many of you have programmed far more lines of J than I have. Still, something in Bo's note led me to comment. I discovered APL in college through Hellerman's _Digital Computer Systems Principles_. For years thereafter, I used APL as a hardware description language and, to a degree, as a note-taking tool. I have probably programmed for about 10 minutes total in APL, most or all of that in I-APL. Ken wrote Notation as a Tool of Thought (1980?) that seems to support the notion of using these languages as natural languages, as ways to express our thoughts to ourselves, to others, and to computers. Does anyone do that with J? I do take notes that way sometimes but not as often as I did with APL. Perhaps that's partially due to my changing professional roles, but I still do analysis. Perhaps that's partially due to much of my current analysis being done in R (*). Perhaps that's because J gave us the ability to craft really powerful and really compact one-line programs that are hard to get right and expressive without a computer to test them. I don't think I'd often use explicit programs as a note-taking tool, although I might in some cases. Tacit expressions seem more aligned with the notation as a tool of thought. How do others react to this notion? Do you regularly take notes in J? In what domains? In tacit / explicit notation? Bill (*): I much prefer J to R as a programming language, but R has two things I think I need: powerful, standard regression tools (lm, lmer, and connections to JAGS, among other things), and the ggplot2 graphics package. I like and often use J's graphics for work, but I have found ggplot2 useful. I'd code data handling in J and just connect to R for specific library calls, but I've had problems in the past figuring out how to do that reliably. Has anyone made that a regular part of their workflow? -- Bill Harris http://makingsense.facilitatedsystems.com/ Facilitated Systems Everett, WA 98208 USA http://www.facilitatedsystems.com/ phone: +1 425 374-1845 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
