Rendered at 14:47:42 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Cloudflare Workers.
gobdovan 1 minutes ago [-]
It always felt strange to me that the main implementation of something as niche and esolang-adjacent as APL is neither OSS nor casually usable commercially, but instead comes under an enterprise license.
Anyway, I had a fun time a while ago translating APL programs to NumPy. At some point you get what APL is all about, and you can move on with life without too many regrets. Turns out most of the time it's more like a puzzle to get an (often inefficient) terse implementation by torturing some linear algebra operators.
If you're after a language that's OSS, has terse notation, and rewires your brain by helping you think more clearly instead of puzzle-solving, TLA+ is the answer.
meken 6 minutes ago [-]
I had a little excursion into Dyalog APL recently and wound up writing an emacs mode to evaluate Dyalog APL [1]. It was a pretty nice experience using Claude to extract the small subset of features I wanted from gnu-apl-mode [2] to work with Dyalog APL.
I’d really like to properly get into APL though. My plan is to solve a bunch of problems on Kattis [3].
I'm really enjoying this way of learning a new language in the age of LLMs - starting with easy problems on various online code judge sites and work with an LLM to come up with/explain simple solutions. It gives me dopamine hits, lots of reps, allows me to start coding right away, and is a nice way to slowly ramp up difficulty and get practice with different features of the language.
How useful would learning APL be for writing less strictly array-based languages like Matlab?
raghavchamadiya 2 hours ago [-]
Nice to see this getting the Jupyter Notebook treatment. The original book was already one of the better introductions to APL. Interactive examples make a huge difference for a language where half the learning curve is just building muscle memory with the symbols
pjmlp 2 hours ago [-]
I have no use for APL, yet this looks like a great bookmark for rainy days.
UltraSane 2 hours ago [-]
I really wish learning this had a positive RoI
robomartin 47 minutes ago [-]
It does, over time. It changes the way you think about computational problem solving. It's like the difference between designing objects in 2D on a drafting table and moving to 3D CAD. It changes your brain visualizes, explores and solves problems.
That said, learning APL isn't about learning the symbols any more than learning mathematics is not about learning the meaning of the various symbols it uses. To continue with that parallel, it also isn't about memorizing formulas. It is about using the tools to solve problems and, over time, changing the way you solve problems...now in 3D.
I learned APL in the early 80's and used it professionally for about ten years. The way I think of solving problems is fundamentally different in many ways because of this experience.
Anyway, I had a fun time a while ago translating APL programs to NumPy. At some point you get what APL is all about, and you can move on with life without too many regrets. Turns out most of the time it's more like a puzzle to get an (often inefficient) terse implementation by torturing some linear algebra operators.
If you're after a language that's OSS, has terse notation, and rewires your brain by helping you think more clearly instead of puzzle-solving, TLA+ is the answer.
I’d really like to properly get into APL though. My plan is to solve a bunch of problems on Kattis [3].
I'm really enjoying this way of learning a new language in the age of LLMs - starting with easy problems on various online code judge sites and work with an LLM to come up with/explain simple solutions. It gives me dopamine hits, lots of reps, allows me to start coding right away, and is a nice way to slowly ramp up difficulty and get practice with different features of the language.
[1] https://github.com/ebanner/dyalog-mode
[2] https://github.com/lokedhs/gnu-apl-mode
[3] https://open.kattis.com
https://www.dyalog.com/uploads/documents/MasteringDyalogAPL....
That said, learning APL isn't about learning the symbols any more than learning mathematics is not about learning the meaning of the various symbols it uses. To continue with that parallel, it also isn't about memorizing formulas. It is about using the tools to solve problems and, over time, changing the way you solve problems...now in 3D.
I learned APL in the early 80's and used it professionally for about ten years. The way I think of solving problems is fundamentally different in many ways because of this experience.