Newsgroups: comp.lang.apl
Path: watmath!watserv2.uwaterloo.ca!torn!nott!uotcsi2!news
From: cbbrowne@csi.uottawa.ca (Christopher Browne)
Subject: Re: J is NOT APL (was Re: Interpreter advice sought.)
Message-ID: <1993Jan25.144021.22129@csi.uottawa.ca>
Sender: news@csi.uottawa.ca
Nntp-Posting-Host: prgv
Organization: Dept. of Computer Science, University of Ottawa
References: <1993Jan23.113019.23895@fid.morgan.com> <C1EIJn.I3@quadsys.com>
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 93 14:40:21 GMT

In article <C1EIJn.I3@quadsys.com> roland@quadsys.com (Roland Besserer) writes:
>hui@fid.morgan.com (Roger Hui) writes:
>: There are some simple tests of this assertion.  For example,
>: try posting the text of an APL function to this news group, 
>: using the system editor on your machine to construct the message.
>
>This is certainly not a valid point. To hopelessly confuse the syntax
>and limit it to agonizingly obscure sequences of punctuation
>characters for the sake of being able to post verbose sources is
>nonsense. 

Is this an invalid point because you don't WANT it to be a valid
point, or is it invalid because the communication of source code is
unimportant?

It appears that you're implying that it is relatively unimportant
whether or not source code can be made portable.  Much of the REST of
the world thinks that portability is HIGHLY important.

The syntax is most definitely NOT limited to "agonizingly obscure
sequences of punctuation characters" - it is quite possible (and can
be useful) to RENAME the various syntax components.  On a system that
has a sufficiently verbose character set that, say, included the APL
character set, you could assign the commands to the appropriate
character.

On the other hand, J allows one to apply power similar to that of APL
in virtually any environment, whether it has "funny characters" or
not.  Moreover, it allows you to make applications portable.

Yes, it tends to look like "line noise".  So does APL, to the
uninitiated.

-- 
Christopher Browne                |     PGP 2.0 key available
cbbrowne@csi.uottawa.ca           |======================================
University of Ottawa              | Genius may have its limitations, but
Master of System Science Program  | stupidity is not thus handicapped.
