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From: gurr@newsparc6 (David Gurr 4-6989 MR Sys)
Subject: Re: What is an APL language?
Message-ID: <1992Nov17.135352.495@mr.med.ge.com>
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Date: Tue, 17 Nov 92 13:53:52 GMT
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Umm, speaking loosely, evaluation from right to left 
allows one to read APL from left to right. Consider
f(g(x)) which is read "f of g of x" and is 
calculated reduce x, apply g, apply f.

On a more general level, the reply to "what is APL"
doesn't leave the reader with any idea as to why
APL might be something that might be of use to 
themself.  And it perpetuates the Jerry Pournell
myth of APL the language for crazed programmers
and not at all for the unwashed masses.

If you survived high school algebra and can use
a hand held calculator, then APL is not going
to stump you.  I doubt that APL is much more
abstruce than spreadsheets, but spreadsheets
and APL are marketed very differently.

All the above IMHO.

David Gurr
 
