NYCJUG/2010-01-12
dictionary, instant messaging, code collaboration, mathematical proofs by computer
Location::BEST in Hoboken, NJ
Meeting Summary
We talked about better ways to present and explain J to people new to the language, looking at a example from Perl.
Agenda for NYCJUG of 20100112
Meeting Agenda for NYCJUG 20100112 ----------------------------------- 1. Beginner's regatta: explaining J idioms - see "Perl Idioms Explained- key-map.doc". 2. Show-and-tell: Thomas - a very basic instant messenger that allows people to share J code. Devon - updating an old favorite: see "DirectoryParsing.odt". 3. Advanced topics: pointing out the limitations of pseudo-code - see "NebulousPlay.odt" - and how easy it is to play around in J. 4. Learning and teaching J: motivating new users and removing barriers to early accomplishment: see "How To Introduce J.odt". Also, see "APL2010BerlinLPA-CallForPapers.odt".
Proceedings
Beginner's regatta
We looked at this Perl explanation of a mapping idiom (found http://www.perlmonks.org/?node_id=280658.)
Show-and-tell
Thomas demonstrated a basic "instant messaging" system he put together with the idea of allowing people to collaborate on J code. It treats a line prefixed by a special sequence (like "J.") to be executed on the messaging client machine. There is work to be done on this, in particular with regard to maintaining a common code archive but it was an impressive little proof-of-concept.
Somehow we got to talking about how character-oriented input from the early days of programming offered a feeling of control whereby your code could respond to each key a user presses. Thomas volunteered that this could be done quite easily in J and proceeded to put together a short piece of "wd" code to demonstrate this. To show that it was reacting to each keypress, he put in a routine to convert each vowel to upper-case while displaying all other characters as they were entered.
Advanced topics
Learning and teaching J
Scan of Meeting Notes
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