The Education Vector

Transcribed from the printed issue; not yet reviewed. Read it in the PDF of the issue, page 29

The Education Vector¶

July 1994

Editor Ian Clark

This Education Vector has been reprinted from VECTOR Vol.11 No.1. VECTOR is the Quarterly Journal of the British APL Association. For more information about the British APL Association, please contact: Anthony Camacho, [address and telephone number omitted].

Contents¶

Ian Clark
IAC/Human Interfaces, [address omitted]
[telephone number and e-mail addresses omitted]

Editorial¶

by Ian Clark

Readers of Education Vector will join with me in expressing their gratitude to the outgoing editor, Alan Mayer, who has staunchly edited EV since taking over from Alan Sykes in October 1991. It falls to me as the new Education Officer to occupy (I won’t say “fill”) the gap left by the two Alans. Since Alan Mayer has been elected Chairman of the 1994-95 Committee, I know that I don’t have to “fill the gap” in the substantive sense, since I can rely on his continued assistance and encouragement. The same goes for Adrian Smith who would have been content to typeset this edition of EV along with the rest of VECTOR with only infinitesimal input from me.

However, encouraged by both Alan and Adrian to put my mark on this little publication, I’ve decided to introduce my first innovation, a column of jottings on rock-bottom educational matters. Since it’s simply got to have a techie APL title, what better than “Jot-Dot-Floor”?

EV wants to appeal to new readers, even at the risk of telling existing readers what they know perfectly well already. You will begin to see certain elementary facts and well-known sources being quoted time and again, just for the benefit of newcomers. Your editor plans to grasp the IQ-knob firmly and turn it down to just below 99, earning just above zero academic kudos in the process. He plans to spoon-feed the APL novice and those new readers who aren’t sure yet whether they want to become APL novices or not. Deep studies will be welcome, as ever, but always with an eye to publishing just the simple parts, giving a contact address for extended information, or even offering it for publication in the main body of VECTOR. Here in EV you’re firmly in the nursery. Please write and say what you think of this policy as the months go by. This isn’t a new departure, but we get the impression it’s what EV should be doing more and more.

This issue carries The Second Lesson of Donald McIntyre’s introductory J tutorial. Some APLers see the J language as a sort of cuckoo in the nest and may wonder what justifies devoting the major part of an issue of EV to it. For my part I’m delighted to do so. I had wondered in the past whether a J tutorial would not have been better placed in the main body of VECTOR, but I’m convinced that EV is the right place for it. For one thing, it ensures that the two lessons of the tutorial come in a handy, easy-to-distribute form, fit for dissemination to a wide audience. For another, I suspect that career-APLers are going to be the last people to appreciate the advantages of J for educational exposition — and that’s something that will only emerge as more and better educational resources using J get published.

For readers who have only just joined us for this issue, EV forms a bound-in supplement to VECTOR, the official journal of the British APL Association, but EV is sent by itself to a separate mailing list of teachers and educationalists, to whom it primarily addresses itself. The subscription to EV is free. Provided you are a teacher, lecturer or bona-fide educational professional, you don’t have to be a member of anything except EVML — the Education Vector Mailing List! Therefore, if you don’t already receive your own copy of EV, or know of someone who ought to, simply write to me and I’ll put it right.