what is it then? On Apr 11, 2013 7:55 PM, "David Mitchell" <[email protected]> wrote:
> I'll throw in a comment/story that is mostly true. I was hired at a large > company many years ago. One of my assignments was to eliminate APL usage, > which was seen as overly expensive and not in the preferred company > direction. At the time, APL was probably the most widely used language in > the company. > > I succeeded in my assignment to eliminate APL after many decades of work > in 2007. I suspect that there were pockets of continuing APL usage via the > PC versions of APL (or J). > > There are many reasons why APL was so difficult to eliminate. In my > opinion, these are mostly the same reasons that led to APL being, from many > points of view, one of the most important computer languages and > implementation environments in this company for many years. > > From what I saw of the adoption and later decline of APL usage, the APL > symbols were fairly far down on the list of the reasons for or against the > usage of APL at this company. > > In a way, this current discussion of symbology reminds me of the > internecine battles in the past over the theoretical correctness of various > implementations of enclosure. > > I will say my reasons for using both APL and J (and the dozen or so other > languages I use regularly) have not much to do with their usage of > symbolics or keywords. After learning the first few dozen languages, I > find that these differences are not very important to me. > > On 4/11/2013 14:56, Björn Helgason wrote: > >> On Apr 11, 2013 5:47 PM, "Joey K Tuttle" <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> >>> >>> I have been tempted, several times, to make one comment and that is a >>> >> feeling that the APL character set was perhaps the single most important >> reason for lack of widespread acceptance and use of APL... >> >>> >>> >>> I believe you are right. >> >> PS: A comment like that to c.l.a would not be popular. >> ------------------------------**------------------------------** >> ---------- >> For information about J forums see >> http://www.jsoftware.com/**forums.htm<http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm> >> >> ------------------------------**------------------------------** > ---------- > For information about J forums see > http://www.jsoftware.com/**forums.htm<http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm> > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
