Is anyone using J as a component in a "modern" application? I am looking for an excuse to learn the language, but my current projects are more traditional web applications.<p>I could likely find an excuse for it in data analysis/manipulation, but that seems like the obvious application.
Too many special characters. This is why I don't like Haskell. As a polyglot, it's really helpful to have a piece of syntax spell out what it does. Python is usually really good at this. I don't get how it can be so hard for language designers to learn this. Why use ":+" when you can use "append"? Now I have to google "Scala append" every time I start writing a new Scala program. Good job. But at least the Scala example uses "+", which is sort of understandable with lists. You can suspect that it has something to do with appending when reading code. What does ">>=" even mean? Or "(($){.R)"? WTF? I give up. I don't like languages that try to fight me.
Dadgum has a great review of a J programming book here:<p><a href="http://prog21.dadgum.com/19.html" rel="nofollow">http://prog21.dadgum.com/19.html</a>
J is really fun. There are a lot of Project Euler problems you can hypothetically do as one-liners and that's highly amusing to me at least.<p>Edited to add examples: <a href="http://www.hakank.org/j/" rel="nofollow">http://www.hakank.org/j/</a>
I recommend installing a J interpreter on your phone or tablet. It's concision makes it a great choice for coding without a physical keyboard (specially with a specialized J virtual keyboard). It's great for, say, doing Project Euler problems while you're waiting in line.