J2 for Windows
Dick Bowman · ACM SIGAPL APL Quote Quad · 1995
HIS HAS NOT BEEN an easy review to produce.Over the years, I have watched J emerge and my reaction--as a long-standing "pure" APL application developer--has slowly changed from scepticism to curiosity.One of the intriguing aspects of J is the way in which it is perceived in a confrontational manner; a sense in whichJ is sometimes viewed as "not APL."This is a controversy I want to avoid in this review.I have long been eager to look atJ as a "product," or a tool for building applications and the release of J2 for Windows has made this an achievable goal.The product reviewed is the "personal" version 2.o3 (the personal edition is said to be identical to the professional version except that it does not offer facilities for building runtime applications), there have been new releases subsequent to this one which may address some of my observations, I believe the current version number is 2.o5.