[HN Gopher] The Origins of APL (1974) [video]
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The Origins of APL (1974) [video]
Author : ofalkaed
Score : 54 points
Date : 2025-12-22 01:43 UTC (6 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.youtube.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.youtube.com)
| bch wrote:
| In the intro I liked the precursors to the IBM "Thinkpad" name.
| ofalkaed wrote:
| Yeah, I never knew that bit of history (probably did and just
| forgot it) and dug into it some after watching this.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_(slogan)
| jibal wrote:
| 9-track tape drives, drum disks, rectangular switches and lights,
| IBM "THINK" logo, fast card readers ... all bring back many
| personal memories.
| znpy wrote:
| I'd LOVE to read more about these memories. If you're willing
| to write down somewhere those memories from that time I'd be
| happy to read them.
|
| Also, it would be nice if you'd complement that with describing
| how the world span at the time. I find that often putting some
| happenings in context helps understanding choices and events
| better.
|
| Thank you in advance!
| ofalkaed wrote:
| This submission popping back up from the second chance pool got
| me to do some digging for the formal description of
| system/360[0], this is not the APL we know today but the APL
| outlined in Iverson's A Programming Language[1].
|
| [0]
| https://www.cs.trinity.edu/~jhowland/class.files.cs2321.html...
|
| [1] https://www.jsoftware.com/papers/APL.htm
| 5- wrote:
| there is also "computer architecture: concepts and evolution"
| by blaauw and brooks which also uses apl throughout.
|
| https://search.worldcat.org/title/Computer-architecture-:-co...
| dtgriscom wrote:
| I went to the Hampshire College Summer Studies in Mathematics in
| 1979, where we learned APL with all its glorious obscure
| characters and overstrikes. Lots of fun.
| leephillips wrote:
| I was an undergraduate there. David Kelly was my advisor. APL
| was my first programming language (using the DecWriter paper
| terminals) and it's still my favorite.
| AndruLuvisi wrote:
| "The simple things are not obvious."
|
| Truer words were never spoken.
| NetMageSCW wrote:
| I was fascinated with APL after picking up a book on it at a
| bargain store and so took an APL class in college. It wasn't
| offered in my CS curriculum, it was in the Architecture
| curriculum.
| TruffleLabs wrote:
| For some more APL history see the "50 Years of APL" at the Dyalog
| URL
|
| https://www.dyalog.com/50-years-of-apl.htm
| RyanHamilton wrote:
| My favorite quote from this video, that I wish more languages
| would embrace is:
|
| "I went from application to application trying to use the same
| techniques. The most encouraging thing is that they would work.
| After 2-3 years during which time the language had grown by
| accretion, it grew and grew, eventually I found it was shrinking.
| Essentially the idea was once you look at enough different
| applications you begin to see what is the general notion. So I
| came to generalisations that allowed me to take out whole chunks
| of special things I had put in. Furthermore to my
| surprise it turns out the general ideas are usually much simpler
| to understand than any of the special cases."
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