1. APL Arrogance WAS:Re: direction
--=====================_128460054==_.ALT
Sorry if I appear arrogant or ignorant but after all I DO have an excuse I'm
American...
The reality is the first portable computer built by IBM (before the True Blue 5
slot IBM PC) was designed with APL as its included language.
APL was designed for mathematics.
java was designed to make Sun Microsystems money.
euphoria was designed for sequences (And to make RDS money! ;-P ).
When it comes to programming I believe in a simple and obvious languages. C is
wonderful in terms of power and flexibility but it is NOT obvious. APL is not
obvious to me.
In the mid '80s I worked for the company that manufactured the Space Shuttle
Main Engine.
I'm not a mathematician but I wrote an data translation application that did a
4 dimensional coordinate transformation (X,Y,Z, angle) of coordinate data
generated by a coordinate measuring machine connected to an HP9816 workstation
running HP "Rocky Mountain" Basic.
HP Basic had a Matrix Translation function and all I did was write a program to
read the numbers from a data file, drop the numbers into the matrix transform
function and out came the numbers we needed. The answer was obvious and the
program worked for 10+ years *without revision* (can M$ make the same claim?)
until they retired the machine (which was longer than I did! They laid me off
in 1992).
.
I'm sure that in APL the whole 110 lines of code I wrote in HP basic would have
been about 3 to 6 lines long but it would have taken an additional 100 to 200
lines of remarks to document what those 3 to 6 lines of code did.
HP's Basic was more powerful than M$'s but it was designed for a specific
purpose in mind. APL has a specific purpose but these days Mathematica,
MathCad, and Maple are better choices for doing mathematics because you don't
have to learn an additional artifical language (along with the additional
hardware) to work with them.
No, I'm not totally ignorant... so it must be I am blissfully... arrogant?
At 02:21 PM 3/23/00 +1200, you wrote:
>Irv, Bernie, Joel, Kat & co,
>
>I know, I am not going to win any friends with what I am going to say, but I
>have to say it anyway:
>
>your arogance through total ignorance is breath taking! jiri (APL fan)
Joel
"When the code works perfectly, the program is obsolete."
-- "The Gosple According to St. Murphy"
--=====================_128460054==_.ALT
<html><div>Sorry if I appear arrogant or ignorant but after all I DO have
an excuse I'm American... </div>
<br>
<div>The reality is the first portable computer built by IBM (before the
True Blue 5 slot IBM PC) was designed with APL as its included
language.</div>
<br>
<div>APL was designed for mathematics.</div>
<br>
<div>java was designed to make Sun Microsystems money.</div>
<br>
<div>euphoria was designed for sequences (And to make RDS money! ;-P
).</div>
<br>
<div>When it comes to programming I believe in a simple and obvious
languages. C is wonderful in terms of power and flexibility but it is NOT
obvious. APL is not obvious to me. </div>
<br>
<div>In the mid '80s I worked for the company that manufactured the Space
Shuttle Main Engine.</div>
<div>I'm not a mathematician but I wrote an data translation application
that did a 4 dimensional coordinate transformation (X,Y,Z, angle)
of coordinate data generated by a coordinate measuring machine connected
to an HP9816 workstation running HP "Rocky Mountain"
Basic. </div>
<br>
<div>HP Basic had a Matrix Translation function and all I did was write a
program to read the numbers from a data file, drop the numbers into the
matrix transform function and out came the numbers we needed. The answer
was obvious and the program worked for 10+ years *without revision* (can
M$ make the same claim?) until they retired the machine (which was longer
than I did! They laid me off in 1992). </div>
<div>. </div>
<div>I'm sure that in APL the whole 110 lines of code I wrote in HP basic
would have been about 3 to 6 lines long but it would have taken an
additional 100 to 200 lines of remarks to document what those 3 to 6
lines of code did.</div>
<br>
<div>HP's Basic was more powerful than M$'s but it was designed for a
specific purpose in mind. APL has a specific purpose but these days
Mathematica, MathCad, and Maple are better choices for doing mathematics
because you don't have to learn an additional artifical language (along
with the additional hardware) to work with them. </div>
<br>
<br>
<div>No, I'm not totally ignorant... so it must be I am blissfully...
arrogant?</div>
<br>
<div>At 02:21 PM 3/23/00 +1200, you wrote:</div>
<div>>Irv, Bernie, Joel, Kat & co,</div>
<div>></div>
<div>>I know, I am not going to win any friends with what I am going
to say, but I</div>
<div>>have to say it anyway:</div>
<div>></div>
<div>>your arogance through total ignorance is breath taking! jiri
(APL fan)</div>
<br>
Joel<br>
<br>
"<b><i>When the code works perfectly, the program is
obsolete</b></i>."<br>
<div align="right">
-- "The Gosple According to St. Murphy"</html>
--=====================_128460054==_.ALT--
