4 ms·
J is fun when you're just starting. Hey, you can take the average of a list of numbers with four characters of code! When you go from that to writing a minima
by saryant 11y ago
J is fun when you're just starting. Hey, you can take the average of a list of numbers with four characters of code!
When you go from that to writing a minimal CMS, things are less fun (actual assignment from a professor who loved J).
- patricklynch 11y agoThe hardest part of J is revisiting old code and trying to figure out what you were thinking when you wrote it. The cognitive cost of writing the same program in J versus your current favorite functional language (let's assume Scheme) is basically the same. The J version will be much more concise, and probably quicker to write. But I found it much harder to review and extend my own J code. Where the Scheme program I wrote last month will be mostly self-documenting and easy to modify, the equivalent J program may as well be machine code. I feel like I _should_ appreciate J more, because it is powerful, but it may be too concise for me to be comfortable with. -survived the same class (Hi Ryan!)
- saryant 11y agoWe run into each other every time there's a submission about J.
- patricklynch 11y agoJust about. Same time in a year and a half?
- saryant 11y agoI've marked my calendar.
- llasram 11y agoOut of curiosity, and if it isn’t impolite to ask, where/when did this bizarre class occur?
- saryant 11y agoTrinity University in San Antonio. The founder of the CS department was a big fan of J and had been there since the 60's so no one really wanted to tell him to stop. J was only used in the Intro FP course. He retired the same year I graduated (2012) and AFAIK the course is now taught in a combination of Scheme, Haskell and ML. The intro sequence for majors also includes Scala so students there get a pretty good basis in FP.
- patricklynch 11y agoThe most recent version of the course - http://www.cs.trinity.edu/About/The_Courses/cs2322/ http://www.cs.trinity.edu/About/The_Courses/cs2322/ They'll probably rewrite the CS department site eventually, but until then, it's a repository of all the information about J you can handle.
- saryant 11y agoIronically, the reason the CS site hasn't been updated is because it's implemented in J. So naturally no one is willing to touch it.