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On 10/10/2012 7:55 PM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
> On 10/10/2012 10:44 PM, Knute Johnson wrote:
>> Anybody remember the name of the programming language from the 70s that
>> had a bunch of built functions for things like matrix math? I think it
>> started with an A? School had a PDP 8 or 11 and it ran on that.
>
> APL?
>
> Arne
>
>

That's it Arne. It's been so long I just couldn't remember any more. I
wonder if it is still used?

--

Knute Johnson

On 10/11/2012 11:23 AM, Knute Johnson wrote:
> On 10/10/2012 7:55 PM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>> On 10/10/2012 10:44 PM, Knute Johnson wrote:
>>> Anybody remember the name of the programming language from the 70s that
>>> had a bunch of built functions for things like matrix math? I think it
>>> started with an A? School had a PDP 8 or 11 and it ran on that.
>>
>> APL?
>
> That's it Arne. It's been so long I just couldn't remember any more. I
> wonder if it is still used?

I think it is quite rare.

But it is still used.

I believe one of the more popular flavors/offspring is J:

http://www.jsoftware.com/

Arne

On Fri, 12 Oct 2012 00:17:41 +0000 (UTC), Martin Gregorie
<> wrote:

>On Thu, 11 Oct 2012 18:02:18 -0400, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>
>> On 10/11/2012 11:23 AM, Knute Johnson wrote:
>>> On 10/10/2012 7:55 PM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:

[snip]

>>>> APL?
>>>
>>> That's it Arne. It's been so long I just couldn't remember any more.
>>> I wonder if it is still used?

APL was my first thought for language, but I had never heard of
it on the hardware you mentioned.

>> I think it is quite rare.
>>
>> But it is still used.
>>
>It used to be described as the ultimate write-only language. I remember
>it being said that Ken Iverson wrote a GUI style text editor in 25 lines
>of APL, but was unable to understand it six months later.

Yow! That makes INTERCAL and Brain**** mere pikers.

[snip]

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

On 10/11/2012 09:17 PM, Martin Gregorie wrote:
> On Thu, 11 Oct 2012 18:02:18 -0400, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>
>> On 10/11/2012 11:23 AM, Knute Johnson wrote:
>>> On 10/10/2012 7:55 PM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>>>> On 10/10/2012 10:44 PM, Knute Johnson wrote:
>>>>> Anybody remember the name of the programming language from the 70s
>>>>> that had a bunch of built functions for things like matrix math? I
>>>>> think it started with an A? School had a PDP 8 or 11 and it ran on
>>>>> that.
>>>>
>>>> APL?
>>>
>>> That's it Arne. It's been so long I just couldn't remember any more.
>>> I wonder if it is still used?
>>
>> I think it is quite rare.
>>
>> But it is still used.
>>
> It used to be described as the ultimate write-only language. I remember
> it being said that Ken Iverson wrote a GUI style text editor in 25 lines
> of APL, but was unable to understand it six months later.
>
>> I believe one of the more popular flavors/offspring is J:
>>
> ... also by Iverson!
>
>
As far as J (or K for that matter) is concerned, it doesn't take but
some regular use of the language to master the symbols; the mnemonics
are pretty decent, and the extra operations created by combination with
.. and : relate quite well.

*Because* the language is so concise you typically have much less code
that you have to look at in order to figure out what's going on. Not
necessarily so with a pass of execution spread out over umpteen classes
and methods in Java or C#.

As wit any other language there is poor code written in J and good code
written in J. Good variable names, and choosing explicit or implicit
control structures as best suited, and in general not being too clever,
lead to readable and maintainable J code.

AHS