Wiki/Report of Meeting 2022-07-28

Report on the J wiki meeting of July 28, 2022

Present: Art Anger, Thomas Bulka, Devon McCormick, Raul Miller, Bob Therriault

1. Bob reviewed the changes that he had made to the sidebar https://code.jsoftware.com/wiki/Main_Page, adding links to the J playground (naming it "J in a Browser") and moving the custom search up to the top of the list and removing the random links. Raul suggested that he sometimes uses random pages and Bob suggests that we put a random link somewhere else for random fans with out the profile that the sidebar gives. Bob mentioned that Ian Clark suggested a different name for Chris Burke's "J search". (Ed. It was "J search (new)")
2. Bob talked about the changes he had made to the "Welcome to J" video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxibe2QOA0s improving the audio and shortening the video by about 7 seconds. Bob suggested that we may put the Welcome to J video on the main page, since it is functioning as a billboard. Also reviewed the "J wiki Video" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8aEdnduINk with explains the new changes to the sidebar and access to the new version of the wiki and the way that we will be using it as a prototype.
3. Bob asked whether there should be a topic for the next video and Devon suggested that an overview of the wiki would be a good idea. Bob thought that a quick video that uses search navigation to find the resources like Essays, Books, Nuvoc and Guides might be a good overview that would later be updated when the structural aspects of the wiki are finalized.
4. Devon mentions a concern that was raised about the definition of Match -: using terminology that referred to other J terms that a beginner may not be familiar with. Devon mentioned that when he looks at Unix man pages he jumps to the end of the pages to see the examples. Bob spoke about some edits that he did on the wiki version of the Primer https://code.jsoftware.com/wiki/Help/Primer/Primer_Contents to make some concepts a bit clearer to people who might not already be familiar with the way that J worked. Raul pointed out that the Primer was meant read alongside a keyboard to get you into experimental mode and it was agreed that links to the playground would be a really useful to provide links to the Primer, allowing people to experiment on their browser. Thomas suggested that all of the books would benefit from more exercises that allowed the learner to test their knowledge. Bob said he would talk to Eric about how he would like to see the Primer used or any changes that it might benefit from. The Jeremy Howard APL group https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGpR2ILao5M&list=PLfYUBJiXbdtSgU6S_3l6pX-4hQYKNJZFU where terms were introduced sequentially, so that learners were familiar with terminologies before they are used to define new primitives.
5. Bob reviewed the changes that he had made to the indices that Raul had developed on the yellow wiki https://code2.jsoftware.com/wiki/Help/Index_C and Raul indicated that these changes could be ported to the blue wiki https://code.jsoftware.com/wiki/Main_Page. Then Bob reviewed the large number of links on the Essay page https://code2.jsoftware.com/wiki/Essays and whether there might be a case for setting up topics on the page that would allow navigation to be a little easier. Raul mentioned an extension that might allow wiki categories to used as a type of search and that may be an easier way to navigate the pages. It was also mentioned that an essay might show up in multiple categories and this is something that might be useful to find relevant information. An index page of the different essays is a good way to start organizing the Essays page. The topics might be suggested by the addons or the labs taxonomy. Thomas pointed out that the essays would require some different topic names. Thomas also mentioned that "50 Shades of J" https://code2.jsoftware.com/wiki/Fifty_Shades_of_J and "At Play with J" https://code.jsoftware.com/wiki/At_Play_With_J could be used as content for the essays since they are essentially books that are made up of essays.
6. It was felt that Essays might be a good place to begin categorizing since the Essays have so much information that people find difficult to find. Thomas suggested that we have people go through the Essays and have them tag the different categories. Bob suggested doing a video on that process to see if we might be able to crowd source some of the choices. We could use the yellow wiki to see how people categorize and then curate the categories that are introduce and use them to divide the Essays into topics for the final version in the blue wiki.
7. Devon was asking about whether anyone was going to the Dyalog User's Meeting and this lead to some discussion about whether there might be future J conferences whether they are virtual or in person. The example given was the centenary video that the British APL Association did with over a hundred participants on zoom.

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If you would like to participate in the development of the J wiki please contact us on the general forum and we will get you an invitation to the next J wiki meeting held on Thursdays at 23:00 (UTC) Next meeting is August 4th, 2022.