Subj : Re: Idea - Tensor could be modelled by 2 arrays and a function To : comp.programming From : mwojcik Date : Wed Aug 24 2005 07:14 pm In article , "Mr Pixie" writes: > "tadchem" wrote in message > news:NtmdnZ2dnZ1qA6rdnZ2dnbCnl96dnZ2dRVn-zZ2dnZ0@comcast.com... > > > > In APL all variables are treated as arrays. > > Sounds like maybe a good language to do this in, although I don't have a > copy of APL - don't know anything about it really - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APL_programming_language APL ("A Programming Language") was first published in 1962. It's not much like the popular procedural or functional languages that are widely used today. Besides its ubiquitous use of arrays and matrices, it's usually used interactively; many programs are written as a single expression, or at most a handful of functions; it has many unconventional operators; and it uses characters which are not in ASCII (though they are all in Unicode) and are not found on normal keyboards. There have been some APL discussions here in comp.programming, and there is at least one public APL newsgroup (comp.lang.apl), though I suspect most postings there assume prior knowledge. > is it a free download? The free implementations of APL that I'm aware of are all pretty old. I'd recommend looking at the language J, which is an APL-derived language that uses ASCII and has some other useful enhancements over standard APL. The current version of J is apparently free for use; you just have to register for a "user license". See http://www.jsoftware.com/ I haven't used J myself, but I've heard good things, for those who like APL-like languages. (I haven't picked it up yet because I like APL's idiosyncratic character set, but if I ever want to do anything more than play with APL, I'll probably switch to J.) -- Michael Wojcik michael.wojcik@microfocus.com Every allegiance to some community eventually involves such a fetish, which functions as the disavowal of its founding crime: is not 'America' the fetish of an infinitely open space enabling every individual to pursue happiness in his or her own way? -- Slavoj Zizek .