What is JQ
Jq is an implementation of the q language on the JVM. It aims to be a complete, correct and fast implementation of q, in future it will provide powerful new features.
Currently it supports a subset of types, a small subset of operations and no on-disk storage.
Why JQ?
The commercial version of q has failed to be adopted outside finance while other similar but inferior solutions have been widely adopted. Data is increasingly at the heart of many businesses. Increasingly businesses want that core to be open source as it prevents vendor lockin and allows them to ultimately fix any problems they have themselves.
For this and other reasons we believe having a viable open source implementation would allow widespread adoption and deployment, potentially allowing a viable language ecosystem to flourish. Instead of each firm creating it's own stack around q, the common parts can be shared and the cost spread amongst all participants.
If this doesn't happen, we believe the other languages and databases will start to cover the q use-cases and it q would become relegated to a legacy language only of interest as a curiosity.
Either q must evolve or stagnate, there is no middle ground. We believe an open source q is the biggest step we could make forward to ensure it has a future.
If you believe similarly and want to help, contact us.