1 May
2024
1 May
'24
11:51 p.m.
On Wed, 1 May 2024, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:
To be sure, BASIC was hardly unique in terms of the
1960s interactive
programming languages. We had JOSS, PILOT, IITRAN and a host of others,
based on FORTRAN-ish syntax. not to forget APL, which was a thing apart.
What would our world be like if the first home computers were to have had
APL, instead of BASIC?
APL was incredible. I was amazed. I was immediately able to do a few
simple things that were useful for my boss and myself, and writing simple
programs within hours. Its matrix arithmetic was awesome.
APL typeball on a selectric terminal at GSFC, . . .
Some of the keys were re-labeled, but there was a chart on the wall of
which keyboard characters were which APL symbols.
My cousin (David Ungar) referred to APL as "terse". He said that you
could write a word processing program in a single line, but that was well
past my abilities.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com