Newsgroups: comp.lang.apl
Path: watmath!watserv2.uwaterloo.ca!torn!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!sdd.hp.com!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!news.cso.uiuc.edu!mm-mac21.mse.uiuc.edu!gaylord
From: Richard J. Gaylord <gaylord@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Subject: spoke to Ken Iverson about J written material
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X-Xxdate: Wed, 14 Oct 92 03:23:28 GMT
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Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1992 08:21:20 GMT
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i called up Iverson Software yesterday to order the new version 6 of J. 

I told whoever answered the phone that i had tried to learn J last year
but was quite unsuccessful and i found the written material accompanying
the program to be completely unhelpful to me but I was trying again since
I found Smillie's article on Statistics and J to be totally fascinating.

Well, i guess i shouldn't have said the written material was unhelpful
since it turned out that i was speaking to Ken Iverson, the creator of
APL and J. 

he explained at great (endless) length how well wriiten the material was
and how anyone who couldn't understand it just doesn't know how to learn
a programming language or how to learn math for that matter.

i don't know if i was more ticked off by receiving a schoolboy lecture 
or being harangued at my own expense since it was  a long distance call
from my home in midday.

anyway, i'm going to keep trying to master M but Iverson Software ought
to keep that guy off the phone or he'll drive away all of J's customers.

If you call Iverson Software and you think you're talking to an elderly
gent, for god's sake don't discuss the merits of his language or his
wriiten material. fair warning.
