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From: Richard J. Gaylord <gaylord@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Subject: Re: What is an APL language?
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Subject:  What is an APL language?
From: Paul Robinson, FZC@CU.NIH.GOV
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 04:40:52 GMT
In article <BxsL3r.EG@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca> Paul Robinson,
FZC@CU.NIH.GOV writes:
>
>One example of the power (or complexity) of the language is the means to
>sum a list of numbers.  For example, in any other language, if I wanted
>the variable A to have the average of a list of 20 numbers, I'd have to
>do a loop.  Here's how it's done with APL:
>
>    a <- +/ 10 34 14 12 22 66 99 44 11 21 94
>
>(and so on)  This gives the "average" or "mean" of the numbers.
>Try doing that with less than a loop and a set of data
>statements or arrays, and so on.  Also, the <- in APL is the
>assignment symbol, a single character
=========

this was an unfortunate example to use. 

in mathematica

a = Apply[Plus, {10, 34, 14, 12, 22, 66, 99, 44, 11, 21, 94}]

(note: one can also use   {10, 34, 14, 12, 22, 66, 99, 44, 11, 21,
94}/.List->Plus which using a rule-based programming aproach which
requires more explanation than anyone here probably wants to hear).

also, Maple offers the convert function to change a data structure list
into an addition operation.

in fact, i believe (but may be wrong) that almost all functional
languages [which apl really isn't] will do this sort of thing .
