APL is more French than English
5 hours ago
- #APL Programming
- #Programming Language Philosophy
- #Educational Technology
- Professor Perlis recounts his conversion to APL after seeing a powerful one-liner during a talk, contrasting with others' dismissive reactions.
- He argues APL offers programming elegance, expressiveness, and pleasure akin to natural language, unlike ALGOL-family languages which feel like plumbing.
- APL's development stemmed from a unique convergence of talent and technology, leading to a stable timesharing system despite IBM's initial resistance.
- Perlis believes APL is becoming a complete language with diverse user interests, making consensus on future changes difficult but beneficial.
- He acknowledges FORTRAN's dominance as a lingua franca but sees APL's value in teaching and creative expression, not as a replacement.
- Programming languages inherently frustrate; perfect 'spherical' languages are unattainable, and APL's strength lies in allowing expression within the language itself.
- APL fosters lyrical, fun programming with multiple solutions, contrasting structured programming's uniformity and offering a literary quality.
- To improve APL, focus should be on 'spherical harmony,' avoiding fragmented development, and addressing inefficiencies like storage use and hardware mismatch.
- An APL-specific machine and compiler could reduce costs for education, replacing BASIC in schools to prevent 'semiliterate' programmers and embrace APL's beauty.
- Future APL evolution should leverage very large-scale integrated circuits, positioning APL as ideal for harnessing new hardware potential beyond traditional architectures.