[Jprogramming] One word description of J

[simon at superware.com.au]

I disagree - just to be devil's advocate here...

It's not the function of a single word to express all the nuances of J  
(or of  anything, except in poetry).  So complaining that English  
isn't "powerful" enough to describe J in a single word is as  
fruitlesss as complaining that J isn't powerful enough to describe  
English in one word.

The fact that J has subtle and implicit power is a good enough  
description without having to explain that it uses implicit rather  
than explicit looping or has tacit code, etc.

How about words like:

"Expert"
"Powerful"
"Potent"
"Refined"
"Effective"
"Efficatious"
"Sophisticated"
"Profound"
"Elegant"
"Subtle"
"Inventive"
"Cunning"
"Competent"

The problem with words like this is that they can apply to lots of  
things and not uniquely to J.

How about made-up words like "Mathemagical"?


Simon

Quoting Henry Rich <HenryHRich at nc.rr.com>:

> I agree.
>
> It's hard to express in a paragraph how it is that the parts of J work
> together, and how, by letting you think about problems rather than
> implementation, it makes you a better, faster, more elegant programmer.
>   A single word is more likely to be misleading than descriptive.
>
> Henry Rich
>
> On 6/7/2011 9:16 PM, Marshall Lochbaum wrote:
>> The problem I see in finding such a word is that it not only has to convey
>> the power of implicit looping and tacit code, but is has to convey the
>> simplicity of J. J's interpreted nature and minimally designed primitives
>> make it much easier to use than other systems with fancier design. Frankly,
>> I'm not sure the English language has enough power to express that in one
>> word.
>>
>> Marshall
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: programming-bounces at jsoftware.com
>> [mailto:programming-bounces at jsoftware.com] On Behalf Of Ric Sherlock
>> Sent: Tuesday, June 07, 2011 8:55 PM
>> To: Programming forum
>> Subject: Re: [Jprogramming] One word description of J
>>
>> Yes certainly in Australasia calling something/someone "feral" is not
>> exactly a compliment!
>>
>> http://onlineslangdictionary.com/meaning-of/feral
>>
>> On Wed, Jun 8, 2011 at 12:14 PM,<simon at superware.com.au>  wrote:
>>> I think that the word "feral" has negative and destructive
>>> connotations.  Not a word to use if you want to promote the use of J
>>> to a manager.
>>>
>>> Surely we need a word that indicates incredible usefulness or
>>> competence.  How about "dextrous" or "omnidextrous".
>>>
>>> Simon
>>>
>>>
>>> Quoting John Baker<bakerjd99 at gmail.com>:
>>>
>>>> I've been thinking about what's a good single word description of J.
>>>>   Something that suggests the important features of the language and
>>>> conveys the spirit of J programming.  I offer the word: feral.
>>>> Here's a footnote I recently added to the upcoming JOD 0.9.3
>> documentation.
>>>>
>>>> Coming up with an accurate description of J is a challenge. The
>>>> language is definitely array oriented and contains an almost pure
>>>> functional tacit sub-language. However J also contains substantial
>>>> imperative features and its clever use of locales and locale paths
>>>> simulates most of the useful features of object oriented languages.
>>>> Waving your hands and declaring a language multi-paradigm or agile is
>>>> the standard way out but unfortunately this does not distinguish J. I
>> think J is a *feral* programming language.
>>>> The word feral sounds like a mixture of functional and imperative and
>>>> the established meaning of feral: almost wild, wilily, able to
>>>> survive on your own but willing to cooperate – on your own terms -
>>>> conveys the independent free thinking character of J programmers.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> John D. Baker
>>>> bakerjd99 at gmail.com
>>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> - For information about J forums see
>>>> http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
>>>
>>>
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>>
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>>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
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>