APL\360

[Bill Gunshannon]

On 1/15/21 3:11 PM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:
> It's also worth noting that (ostensibly) the first complete
> microcomputer system (keyboard, printer, storage) was the MCM/70, using
> an 8008 implementing APL (not BASIC!).
> 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MCM/70
> 
> I'll say it again--a programmer who thinks in APL is very different from
> one who thinks in BASIC, Fortran, C, Pascal, etc.
> 
> So of course, an APL program would look unintelligible to a non-APL
> programmer.
> 

But being an APL programmer does not preclude using all the other
languages.  One need to pick the language suitable for the job.
Back in the days when APL, COBOL, Fortran, ALGOL, etc. were the
norm languages were created domain specific.  Today they are all
just General Purpose.

As a side note, while I know and have used the APL Character Set
I have only ever owned two terminals that had it and most of my
APL was done using DiGraphs and TriGraphs.

bill