Subject: I would like to learn J. Your suggestions please...
From: whitaker@fas.harvard.edu (Orion Whitaker)
Date: 13 Sep 1994 17:02:36 GMT
Organization: Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts

I would like to learn J.

My training was in Fortran and C.  I use Awk for little "just get the job
done" tasks like report generation and "back of the envelope"
calculations.

These are small programs: 100-500 lines.  My colleagues use Perl for the
same tasks. No one uses APL or J.

Efficiency of writing "single use" programs is important.  Efficiency of
execution is not.

Years ago I looked at APL and used IBM's "TryAPL2" without success.
(Fortran programmers can make any language look like Fortran. I was unable
to reach that zen-like state of "Ah... the answer is obviously the outer
product of these two very long vectors....")

(My puerile desire to "impress my friends" with APL's unusual glyphs did
not help.)

Today I use an aging 386sx-16Mhz 4Mb 80Mb-HD with WFWG 3.11 and thought
that J would be of some advantage in writing these "little programs" under
Windows.

Any suggestions on learning J?

(( My hidden agenda is to meet someone interesting from Morgan-Stanley. ))

(( Any suggestions? ))

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
whitaker@husc4.harvard.edu
Orion Whitaker MD, Boston, MA
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Board Certified Anesthesiologist seeking a cooperative/collaborative practice.
---  Medical and Administrative Experience in OR, OB, and Pain Management  ---
-  Your practice's setting and nature are more important to me than location -
------- Please E-Mail or call if you know a colleague who is interested ------
----------------------- (617) 232-7701 Voice and Fax -------------------------
