Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!pacbell.com!ucsd!ucrmath!rhyde From: rhyde@ucrmath.ucr.edu (randy hyde) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2 Subject: Re: How to Choose a Programming Language Message-ID: <14389@ucrmath.ucr.edu> Date: 13 May 91 16:02:41 GMT References: <1991May9.231820.26867@utstat.uucp> <16117@smoke.brl.mil> <1991May11.230407.1038@utstat.uucp> Organization: University of California, Riverside Lines: 13 The "funny symbols" have been available for virtually every computer for a long time. 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. <<< Not to mention most people's steadfast refusal to give up the imperative programming language paradigm. "What do you mean APL has no loops? No problem, it has a conditional goto, I can make my own..." *** Randy Hyde