Newsgroups: comp.lang.apl
Path: watmath!watserv1!torn!utcsri!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uunet.ca!geac!itcyyz!yrloc!rbe
From: rbe@yrloc.ipsa.reuter.COM (Robert Bernecky)
Subject: Re: SIGNUM of teaching numerical methods
Message-ID: <1992Jul28.144811.21701@yrloc.ipsa.reuter.COM>
Reply-To: rbe@yrloc.ipsa.reuter.COM (Robert Bernecky)
Organization: Snake Island Research Inc, Toronto
References: <ROCKWELL.92Jul18201144@socrates.umd.edu> <1088@kepler1.rentec.com> <1992Jul23.045513.20017@yrloc.ipsa.reuter.COM> <1117@kepler1.rentec.com>
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 92 14:48:11 GMT
Lines: 45

In article <1117@kepler1.rentec.com> andrew@rentec.com (Andrew Mullhaupt) writes:
>In article <1992Jul23.045513.20017@yrloc.ipsa.reuter.COM> rbe@yrloc.ipsa.reuter.COM (Robert Bernecky) writes:
>>In article <1088@kepler1.rentec.com> andrew@rentec.com (Andrew Mullhaupt) writes:
>
>>a. WHEN APL code can compete in loopy-type stuff, with Fortran,
>>   many arguments against APL will vanish.
>
>Yes. And what I _really_ want to know is why is this not a problem which
>has been solved ten years ago?

Well, partially because nobody knew HOW to solve it then. A major problem
with traditional functional languages is making them run fast on REAL 
problems. Researchers are only now coming up with ideas on speedups
for such languages. And not all of the languages being dealt with have
the flexibility of APL with respect to late binding, array type, rank,
shape changes, etc.

>
>Agree. In fact the strongest programmer I know regards anything where you
>don't have asynchronous parallelism as trivial. He's probably in some sense
>right.

According to The Venerable Bede, appeal to authority is the weakest form
of argument.

>Paradoxically, the less you will be forced to do in post-APL, the less you will
>avoid it. The less religion is required before using post-APL, the more popular
>it will be.
>
>Now my desiderata are on the table. I think you can take APL as a starting
>point and get to the promised land. (Else why would I keep involved in
>comp.lang.apl?)
>
>I may be wrong, but I think (based on my very limited exposure) that J does
>not go in the direction I'm pointing in. So from where I sit the field is
>vacant in the search for post-APL.

OK, so you don't like J and APL. What direction DO you like? Why?


Robert Bernecky      rbe@yrloc.ipsa.reuter.com  bernecky@itrchq.itrc.on.ca 
Snake Island Research Inc  (416) 368-6944   FAX: (416) 360-4694 
18 Fifth Street, Ward's Island
Toronto, Ontario M5J 2B9 
Canada
