Wiki/Report of Meeting 2023-02-09

Report of Meeting 2023-02-09

Present: Art Anger, Raul Miller, and Bob Therriault

1. Bob showed off the work that he has been doing in category trees https://code.jsoftware.com/wiki/Page_Map and is in the process of categorizing all the pages in the wiki. Originally, he was categorizing across a number of subtrees until he realized that categorizing the Reference section would speed up the categorization of Newcomers and Developers. Since the category tree is in the process of being developed there are still categories that may be added, but in the meantime there is an opportunity for anyone to categorize pages. There is also a page with the different categories in a tree structure so that they can be easily cut and pasted onto any page. https://code.jsoftware.com/wiki/Wiki/Category_Tree_Cut_and_Paste
2. The plan is to have the 'pretty pages' extend one layer down https://code.jsoftware.com/wiki/Category:Newcomers_N and then have simpler pages with text and links below that https://code.jsoftware.com/wiki/Category:Forums_and_Community_N.2.
3. At this stage, Bob had worked through the pages as far as the Backus-Nauer page. More categorization is planned for this week with a goal of having all the pages categorized into at least one category in the next 2 weeks. When the process has been refined there will be instructions added to the wiki how to contribute page https://code.jsoftware.com/wiki/Category:Contibuting_to_the_J_Wiki_W.2 so that the process can be used easily for anyone who would like to highlight useful pages in specific categories.
4. The process of categorizing pages has been very illuminating, with pages such as Raul's 'Why J' from 2014 having some very useful content https://code.jsoftware.com/wiki/Essays/WhyJ.
5. Pages with references prior to the 800 versions of J will be put in archive areas. The 800 versions were the last ones that had a 32 bit format and some features of the 800 series such as Taylor series were removed as primitives. This will allow the wiki to be more relevant for current users, while still providing access to historic information.
6. There was a discussion of Ed Gottsman's J Flashcards, which he now has working in a J script. There are a couple of hundred cards, each with a question section, and answer section and a section with links to reference material. This may become an add-on and would be very useful for increasing fluency in the language. Ed has provided Bob a working script and Bob will provide it if requested before the add-on is available.
7. Bob talked about the time-line for discontinuing the prototype wiki https://code2.jsoftware.com/wiki/Category:Home. Bob has already transferred the links categories that Tom McGuire had added to the current wiki and has encouraged Tom to make any subsequent changes to the current wiki. Anyone who has done work that they wish to retain should have saved it locally prior to the end of the month. After next week's meeting, we will confirm with Chris Burke that the prototype wiki can be discontinued at the end of February.

For access to previous meeting reports https://code.jsoftware.com/wiki/Wiki_Development If you would like to participate in the development of the J wiki please contact us on the general forum and we will get you an invitation to the next J wiki meeting held on Thursdays at 24:00 (UTC) Next meeting is February 16th, 2023.