J uses . and : as modifiers to a base operator to create a pretty big set of primitives. See https://code.jsoftware.com/wiki/NuVoc

I'm perplexed by this one. I'll concede that the APL symbols are prettier but why does it magically stop being a notation just because you use combinations of ASCII symbols. Especially when many APL symbols are composed of units themselves.

⍲ vs *: One is 'notation' because it has the two units stacked on top of each other and the other is not because they are stacked horizontally?

Do you know if GNU APL offers the facilities to do stuff like that?

After some research, although I had a flawed understanding of vowels and consonants, I think it's classified as a semivowel.

from their webpage [1]:

> If 3 note pads are pressed that are 3 corners of a rectangle, presses to a note pad that is the 4th corner of that rectangle will be ignored.

[1] http://www.rogerlinndesign.com/ls-specs.html

I come from a piano background, and as someone that kind of struggles to improvise in keys with more accidentals I was attracted to the idea of an isomorphic layout.

After playing a lot with the isomorphic layout I've come to a conclusion that it comes at a cost (it has its advantages and disadvantages compared to the traditional piano layout)

To be isomorphic the layout has to have multiple representations of a single note, with this comes the fact that you don't really have to learn one shape for every chord, you have to learn multiple ones if you play complex polyphonic music and want comfortable fingerings (the linnstrument also has this problem that you can't play 4 notes in a square which comes at the most unexpected times specially between the two hands).

So the comparison would be to learn every key thoroughly vs learning every (useful) alternative for every chord.

In my opinion there's nothing intuitive about the y axis having a greater intervalic distance than the x axis, specifically I would have this problem when going down in a melody to the previous "string" the distance to that note is way different than it would be on the same string.

To be fair I think the only intuitive layout is a linear one (like a single string, or the haken continuum)

If anything, having played with an isomorphic instrument has encouraged me to learn the piano layout more deeply.

Having said that, the linnstrument itself is a decent product all and all (although I have some beefs with it but I don't want to turn this comment into a review) and it makes sense that you like the layout having more experience with stringed instrumments, but I would say that's familiarity not intuitiveness.

I'm excited about their work but it seems that it would be much better for everyone if they just released their work openly.

I came from having played a few IF (interactive fiction) games where the puzzling element is important. I was expecting to find the same kind of elements in Discworld and was disappointed.

For example there is a quest where you have to make the rat king go away from a house(or something like that); being a mage I found out there was a spell to kill vermin, so I leveled it up a lot and cast it on the rat king, it did kill it and it exploded into tiny bugs, but it didn't complete the quest.

The magic system seemed very cool and like it could have been used as a mechanic to solve quests and puzzles, instead that gave me the impression it was only meant for combat. (or making stuff for other players)

Another issue is how stupid the NPC's were (compared to IF games), I recall that a street urchin or other npc's couldn't even give you directions to streets. (directly asking like 'where is street').

Having said that I liked how huge the game felt, and the events that could happen with the interaction of the other players. For example dying in a river, being resurrected, and having them dive to get my stuff. Or following around a weird mage only to enter a portal he created and get eaten by crocodiles (oops)

It seems there's so much underdeveloped potential with these kind of games, if someone knows of a MUD that has more IF inspired mechanics with more emphasis on the puzzling I'd be happy to know.

Could you actually do it please?