APL\360

[Chuck Guzis]

On 1/14/21 5:44 PM, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote:
> I was just poking around the computerhistory.org website, searching for Knuth stuff.
> 
> The second or third hit when I search for "Knuth" is this one: https://computerhistory.org/blog/the-apl-programming-language-source-code/ .  It's not just about APL, it actually has a downloadable copy of the source code.  And it points to an executable version, apparently a packaged up Hercules running that code.
> 
> Nice.  I'll have to give it a try.


I recall Neil Lincoln (he of CDC/ETA) relating that he taught APL to his
kids and his wife (APL was pretty much a natural for the STAR) as a
first programming language.

I took some time to learn it fairly well, but never really had any
opportunity to use it much, so it's gone into the memory dustbin of old
never-used languages of my brain.

A co-worker back when would never use the name of the book or the
abbreviation.  He always referred to it as "that Iverson language" or "TIL".

And it's comparatively easy to write short, perfectly opaque code in
APL; probably more so than other common languages.

--Chuck