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From: randy@godin.on.ca (Randy MacDonald)
Subject: Re: Programming language vote - results
Date: 1997/10/29
Message-ID: <636vd6$rb9$6@news.on>#1/1
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References: <343fbb5a.0@news.iprolink.ch> <343FD05C.8986A557@flash.net>
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 <344DEAA9.5115@hal-pc.org>
Organization: Godin London Incorporated
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,comp.lang.apl,comp.lang.c,comp.lang.c++
Date: 1997-10-29T00:00:00+00:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>


In article <344DEAA9.5115@hal-pc.org>, donguinn@hal-pc.org wrote:
>Why is it OK to spend a whole morning understanding a couple pages of
>FORTRAN code, yet it is unreasonable to spend the same amount of time
>with a 2-liner in APL or J which does the same thing?

A couple of reasons come to mind:

1. APL hides a lot of the detail within primitives.  Usually the result
   is the focus as opposed to the algorithm.

2. APL combines a lot of what would be separate cases in FORTRAN into 
   a single case.  Essentially there is one set of numbers in APL, where
   in FORTRAN, code varies for each separate data type, and the semantics
   of expressions like:


    C = A / B
    K = I / J

    can produce quite different results.  Note that I am assuming the
    I..N as INTEGER rule for FORTRAN.

3.  APL can remove the need for temporary variables, or control variables
    or index variables.


In terms of what one would call a reasonable period for understanding, it
is also true that APL tends to match the subject matter, while FORTRAN
also adds the artifacts of the language as things to be understood.

--
|\/| Randy A MacDonald       | Bring me... BLUE PAGES!!!!
|\\| randy@godin.on.ca       | 
     BSc(Math) UNBF '83      | APL: If you can say it, it's done.
     Natural Born APL'er     | *** GLi Info: info@godin.on.ca ***
                             | Also http://www.godin.on.ca/randy
------------------------------------------------<-NTP>----{ gnat }-