<peeve value="++"/> >A one time array languages did have a mass audience. Then spreadsheets swept >all the hoi polloi and their spaghetti code elshwhere. my impression is that >the formalism is not flexible enough to have the strings attached in the adhoc >manner required of real world problems. Maybe a marriage with Scheme would >work better. Sorta K`ish.
greg ~krsnadas.org -- from: Kenneth Lettow <[email protected]> to: [email protected] date: 22 October 2013 20:05 subject: Re: [Jchat] <small rant> Is it worth it to engage idiots over moronic comments about array languages? True, but I think the effect can be cumulative. -- from: Roger Hui <[email protected]> to: Chat Forum <[email protected]> date: 22 October 2013 20:01 subject: Re: [Jchat] <small rant> Is it worth it to engage idiots over moronic comments about array languages? >> I usually refrain from commenting on articles/posts like these, as nothing >> good usually comes from it, but it still irritates me that there may be some >> people whose first exposure to array languages may come from idiotic >> comments like this one. >Look at it this way: The people whose first exposure to array languages come >from such comments and then decide to make it their last, how big a loss to >the array languages community is that? -- from: Kenneth Lettow <[email protected]> via forums.jsoftware.com reply-to: [email protected] to: [email protected] date: 22 October 2013 19:48 subject: [Jchat] <small rant> Is it worth it to engage idiots over moronic comments about array languages? >I still consider myself relatively new to array languages, especially when >compared to the estimable members of these forums. I have learned a great >deal from the languages, as well as the incredibly helpful user communities >that support them. >The one thing that always chafes my ass is when I come across negative >comments about array languages when reading a general interest article on the >web. Here is one I came across today. >http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/bitwise/2013/10/healthcare_gov_problems_what_5_million_lines_of_code_really_means.html quote from the article: On the other hand, here’s a line of APL (“A Programming Language<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APL_(programming_language)>”) > code: > (~R?R°.×R)/R?1??R > That code prints out all the prime numbers from 1 to R. APL is a > notoriously terse and nightmarish language. I have successfully avoided > ever coding in it. One single line of APL code could contain half a dozen > bugs. >Clearly, this guy has never used APL, yet he has no problem dumping on it even >after stating that he has avoided ever coding in it. I want to know what the origin of this negativity is? >Did array'ers go around bullying programmers of other languages at conferences >before I began using J? Did Ken Iverson pee in Dijkstra's coffee cup in >1968<http://www.jsoftware.com/pipermail/chat/2007-November/000633.html> ? >I usually refrain from commenting on articles/posts like these, as nothing >good usually comes from it, but it still irritates me that there may be some >people whose first exposure to array languages may come from idiotic comments >like this one. <end rant> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
