Newsgroups: comp.lang.apl
Path: watmath!watserv2.uwaterloo.ca!torn!utcsri!rpi!think.com!spool.mu.edu!news.nd.edu!mentor.cc.purdue.edu!mentor!weg
From: weg@mace.cc.purdue.edu (Eythan Weg)
Subject: Re: spoke to Ken Iverson about J written material
In-Reply-To: Richard J. Gaylord's message of Wed, 14 Oct 1992 08:21:20 GMT
Message-ID: <WEG.92Oct14133857@mace.cc.purdue.edu>
Sender: news@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (USENET News)
Organization: Purdue University
References: <Bw3r7M.9MJ@news.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1992 18:38:57 GMT
Lines: 37

In article <Bw3r7M.9MJ@news.cso.uiuc.edu> Richard J. Gaylord <gaylord@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> writes:

   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.

I am flabbergasted.  If you found your conversation increasing in
cost, you should have asked to discontinue it.  Perfectly
understandable.  But to be sheepishly unhappy with it and then slug
your discontent on the net is shameful.

Besides, what exactly do expect from any ISI employee when you recount
your travail with J.  You might have simply put in your order.

Eythan
