The author has used J model building in most computer science courses taught during the last ten years. J has proved invaluable in aiding student comprehension of difficult material as well as providing many opportunities for laboratory experimentation which otherwise would not have been possible.
The author has tried to use, with some success, J language based models in courses where students have no prior experience reading or writing J. It has been possible to use J with little formal J instruction beyond learning the right-to-left evaluation rule. Since the notation may be used interactively, students can begin using models provided by the instructor to perform experiments before they have acquired sufficient J reading skills so that the models provide an expository function.
As an added bonus, J Software, Incorporated, now makes the full J system, on-line documentation and HTML versions of three books, J Dictionary, J User Manual and J Phrases freely available to anyone who wishes to access the J Web site, http://www.jsoftware.com/ .