Re: Programming Languages (was: New Developers)

"RPG400-L" <rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote on 06/08/2018 03:58:16
PM:

"One of the more esoteric languages I've done quite a bit of
programming in is APL. ;-)"

Now there is a truly write-only language! I remember some debates
in Byte about APL years ago where one of the protagonists finally
admitted he had just been asked to modify one of his own programs
and found he couldn't work out why/how it worked!

I didn't consider it a write-only language. But, then, I never
wrote any scientific functions in it, either. That is where it truly
showed its power.

I was so good at writing (and maintaining) APL that the last thing
my university asked me (and paid me) to do for them was to write a
complete CAI course to teach APL to students and it was, itself, written
entirely in APL.

I have only seen APL at one company since I got out of college --
and it was an IBM shop. My university was not an IBM shop. The
university had two mainframes, though -- a Zerox Sigma 6 and a 7.


Sincerely,

Dave Clark