Jay User Ideas

This is an experiment by some members of the JayLanguage community to supplement existing forms of documentation with a Wiki that will be more permanent than the `user forum' and yet more flexible than the official documentation maintained by the J developers.

People interested in this are: DavidNess, JimRussell, WardCunningham, HenryRich, SkipCave, RandyMacDonald ...

Topics of interest:

Ideas about Tutorial Subjects
- A tutorial on Public Key Encryption is in process
- J for C programmers
- Is there a tutorial on tutorials?
Ideas about Tutorial Mechanics
- Something paralleling DonKnuth's `Double-S' sections would be nice
- Ability to tab forward across chapter ends
- How about a J plugin for the browser and a version of wiki that knows how to format calls on it. Could one link to the J.dll to allow J labs to run?
- Comment and Forward Mechanism (via EMail?)
- Labs need a version number as Labs are resident on user machine and therefore comments may be about an old copy if lab is under development
Use of TeX for J Output

The idea of a J plugin for the browser is a tantalizing one. There is some chance, I think, that the whole Lab mechanism should perhaps be replaced by conventional HTML which integrates through a plug-in button to the J.DLL that could execute the examples.

This might even go so far that the code-button could run whole paragraphs or, alternatively, lines.

It would be interesting to have some discussion of this prospect before giving much consideration to the details about how the current mechanisms could be improved. It might be worth noting, in passing, that K (see KayLanguage ) makes extensive use of the browser to manage the interactions with the user, thus freeing the system from responsibility for lots of I/O communication. J's moves to remove the help facilities from inside of the J environment to be implemented via HTML and the browser might be a precursor to doing the same here.

I have just run my first tutorial in RebolLanguage. The way that code interacts with text strikes me as materially better than in J's tutorial system, but I'd be particularly interested in discussion from anyone who has done some of both. -- DavidNess

I have put a short paper discussion the possible use of Rebol to help with J tutorials on my home page at http://mywebpages.comcast.net/dness under the title 'J Tutorials and Rebol'. http://mywebpages.comcast.net/dness/rebol.htm

The implementation of J on the Compaq iPAQ is extremely nice. I'd be interested in discussing not only the J implementation on the iPAQ, but also other things that iPAQ owners are finding it useful to load. I'd be happy to start a new page, or to let the discussion grow here.

Also see JayCriticisms.