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From: emclean@sfsuvax1.sfsu.edu (Emmett McLean)
Subject: Re: J written material (Emmett repost)
Message-ID: <1992Oct16.042306.9080@csus.edu>
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Organization: San Francisco State University
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Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1992 04:23:06 GMT
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  Sorry. There were so many misspelled words in
  my earlier post that I made an idiot of myself.
 
  As I see it there are two issues, the rebuff issue,
  (already discussed) and the quality of Iverson's
  publications on J.  Here are my thoughts.

  The Dictionary of J " gets my thumbs up. 
  It is terse reading for the person new to J  but
  for the person familiar with J it is concise. I read
  it every day, and have purchased three new versions.

  An "Introduction to J" is great in that it covers most
  of what J is about and presents it in a way that anyone
  can understand. I like the fact that most of the
  interactive sessions in the book show the computers'
  response.  This aspect allows the reader to learn about J
  while reading at the local coffee shop. (And here in San 
  Francisco there's lots of um.)

  "Programming in J"  is kind of disappointing. The section 
  on branching has some good examples, but no written 
  explanation. In most cases, the computer's responses to 
  interactive commands is omitted so you must be at a terminal 
  to benefit from reading the book. (A drag) The explanation of
  creating functions via explicit definition could
  be improved and put in the section on writting programs.
  (I learned about explicit definition by reading Raul 
  Rockwell's translation of an eigenvalue problem on 
  the net.) Most disappointing is what the text omits.
  No useful examples on user defined conjunctions. No
  useful examples of how to glue verbs together in
  tacit definition. Too many questions which, if the
  reader can't figure out, have no answers.(  In this
  aspect the book seems like it was written by a professor
  instead of a software publisher. ) No comprehensive
  look at the " :m" uses of a gerund.  Mostly vanilla
  stuff . Nothing about how to execute the equivalent
  APL instruction "A[3;] = ,b" , a must for a programmer.
  No write up on the advantages of J over APL or explanation
  of the difference in orientation of the items (down not
  sideways -why is this better again?) or how much
  tacit definition helps the compiler.

  Much of this stuff I suppose I will find by reading
  ACM APL literature. 

  "Arithmetic" is also kind ofdisappointing. Mostly a 
  rehash of "Programming in J" with a few shards of stuff
  about polynomials and combinations.  I never reference it.
  I expect "Calculus" to be about as useful.

  PS.  Just because I say something is disappointing doesn't
  mean I'd discourage someone from buying it . I want to
  see J survive and hope ISI sells lots of books.

  Emmett, vpcsc4@sfsuvax1.sfsu.edu 

  My opinions only.
