Path: utzoo!mnetor!tmsoft!itcyyz!yrloc!hui
From: hui@yrloc.ipsa.reuter.COM (Roger Hui)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.apl
Subject: Re: Some General Questions about J
Message-ID: <1991Feb27.045522.5924@yrloc.ipsa.reuter.COM>
Date: 27 Feb 91 04:55:22 GMT
References: <1991Feb23.234505.5960@csi.uottawa.ca>
Reply-To: hui@yrloc.ipsa.reuter.COM (Roger Hui)
Organization: Iverson Software Inc., Toronto
Lines: 31

a. The special symbols APL are elegant, but they are very expensive.
You yourself outlined some of the costs, by pointing out things made
possible by eschewing the special symbols.

As to the possible disadvantages of the ASCII spelling, anything new 
will look strange at first.  The Language Summary in the dictionary is
worthy of study. You may come to appreciate that the ASCII spelling 
is no less mnemonic than the special symbols.

b. Documentation. "status.doc" is not meant to be sufficient for
learning J. It just tells you what's been implemented and what has not.
$24 buys you a printed manual called "Tangible Math and the ISI Dictionary
of J" (author: K.E. Iverson).  If you feel that you can not afford the
cost, there are alternatives:

- Hui/Iverson/McDonnell/Whitney, APL\?, APL90 Conference Proceedings.
[Introduced J, "philosophic" discussions, reasons behind design].
- K.E. Iverson, Dictionary of J, Vector (Journal of the British 
APL Association), October 1990. [This version of dictionary now 
slightly out-of-date.]
- K.E. Iverson, J, Vector, July 1990.
- The tutorial frames in the distribution package.

c. The bracket axis "operator" has been superseded by the rank (")
conjunction. See the msg from Bob Bernecky filed 1991 2 26 21 05 GMT.

Roger Hui
Iverson Software Inc.
33 Major Street, Toronto, Ontario  M5S 2K9
(416) 925 6096