Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Path: utzoo!utgpu!utstat!philip
From: philip@utstat.uucp (Philip McDunnough)
Subject: Re: How to Choose a Programming Language
Message-ID: <1991May9.231820.26867@utstat.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Statistics
References: <14309@ucrmath.ucr.edu>
Date: Thu, 9 May 1991 23:18:20 GMT

In article <14309@ucrmath.ucr.edu> rhyde@ucrmath.ucr.edu (randy hyde) writes:
>Here's a cute little ditty I swiped off BIX:

[ goes through many languages, cute comments...]

>APL:
>        GN </ FT ^ BLT

I grew up on APL( and Fortran). The gripe against its character set typically
comes from the same sorts of people who complain about abstract mathematics.
It seems to me that mathematics is a prerequisite for most good work of
any substance in most sciences. So the issue of not being able to deal with
symbols is very distressing. It has forced some of the APL community to
adopt an ASCII character set, and recently Iverson has come out with his
J language. I like APL, and would really like to see it on the GS. 
 
Every era seems to have its in language. C is the current one( and one that
I find very unappealing). There was PL/1 at one point. It seems that every
generation is told to learn this or else. People would be much better of
learning how various cpu's work, how mathematics works, etc...After the
concepts are established, they can get down to the passing fads.

Philip McDunnough
University of Toronto
[my opinions,...]