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From: gwyn@smoke.brl.mil (Doug Gwyn)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re: How to Choose a Programming Language
Message-ID: <16133@smoke.brl.mil>
Date: 12 May 91 04:06:30 GMT
References: <1991May9.231820.26867@utstat.uucp> <16117@smoke.brl.mil> <1991May11.230407.1038@utstat.uucp>
Organization: U.S. Army Ballistic Research Laboratory, APG, MD.
Lines: 32

In article <1991May11.230407.1038@utstat.uucp> philip@utstat.uucp (Philip McDunnough) writes:
>The "funny symbols" have been available for virtually every computer for a
>long time.

That's certainly not true.  None of the usual code sets (ASCII, EBCDIC, etc.)
include the APL symbols, and even most typesetting fonts used with laser
printers do not include them.  There have been occasional special-order
computer terminals such as the Tektronix 4015 with an APL character set,
but most terminals have not provided APL symbols.

>The main complaint was not the unavailability( since there were
>even ascii equivalents before Iverson came out with J) but the so-called
>unreadability of APL code, and the difficulty people had in maintaining
>other people's programs. This difficulty can be traced to most programmers'
>poor grasp of the concepts of mathematics and their inability to think in
>abstract ways.

In my experience the real difficulty lay in the abysmal lack of
professionalism on the part of APL coders, who would ignore software
engineering issues such as the need to anticipate maintenance
requirements.  It was a rare APL program that was adequately commented,
let alone designed in any greater depth for maintainability.

The same flaw can occur in improper use of almost any programming
language.  I've seen TECO macros that make APL programs look like
Basic English.  And of course there is the infamous Obfuscated C Code
contest, whose winning entries are almost incomprehensible.  None of
these reflect on the language, but rather on the programmer.

I don't know how you could have information about "most" programmers.
Do you really know that many people?  The best programmers I know of
certainly think at a high level of abstraction.