I feel the author's pain, being new to APL. The community obviously shares this problem, thus there are some online resources, such as the 'APL cart' https://aplcart.info/ and older idiom...
There's also a chat space on stackexchange for APL where they're quite friendly to new users with questions.
..but APL seriously needs some more n00b-friendly guides online. I trolled archive.org for APL books and there is a lot there but it takes work to get a foothold, for sure.
What's the use case for APL? Most of the languages I have worked with have a distaste for symbolic operands as they make reading harder and discourage building your own functions (adding more...
What's the use case for APL? Most of the languages I have worked with have a distaste for symbolic operands as they make reading harder and discourage building your own functions (adding more custom symbols).
It's definitely a different philosophy, but those who like it, like it a lot, I'm told :) As for the symbolic input, it's not nearly as hard as it used to be. For Windows, Dyalog APL just uses...
It's definitely a different philosophy, but those who like it, like it a lot, I'm told :)
As for the symbolic input, it's not nearly as hard as it used to be. For Windows, Dyalog APL just uses Window's Language Keyboard map feature; for Linux, all it takes is an entry in one's login to define a control key; I use the Caps Lock key as the modifier, so CAPS+w=⍵, CAPS+e=∊, etc. (and alt+CAPS is unaffected, if one still needs capslock). I had to print out little stickers for my keyboard but it becomes a memory thing eventually.
[.bashrc]
#APL keymap support using CAPS key as symbol shift (use SHIFT or ALT-CAPS as capslock)
setxkbmap us,apl -option grp:caps_switch
I feel the author's pain, being new to APL. The community obviously shares this problem, thus there are some online resources, such as the 'APL cart' https://aplcart.info/ and older idiom compilations like the FinnAPL idiom library https://www.aplwiki.com/wiki/FinnAPL_idiom_library -- and especially this hidden gem within Dyalog's MiServer demo webspace, a multi-dialect idiom library search engine: https://miserver.dyalog.com/Examples/Applications/Idiom_Search.mipage
There's also a chat space on stackexchange for APL where they're quite friendly to new users with questions.
..but APL seriously needs some more n00b-friendly guides online. I trolled archive.org for APL books and there is a lot there but it takes work to get a foothold, for sure.
What's the use case for APL? Most of the languages I have worked with have a distaste for symbolic operands as they make reading harder and discourage building your own functions (adding more custom symbols).
Also how do you write those symbols???
It's definitely a different philosophy, but those who like it, like it a lot, I'm told :)
As for the symbolic input, it's not nearly as hard as it used to be. For Windows, Dyalog APL just uses Window's Language Keyboard map feature; for Linux, all it takes is an entry in one's login to define a control key; I use the Caps Lock key as the modifier, so CAPS+w=⍵, CAPS+e=∊, etc. (and alt+CAPS is unaffected, if one still needs capslock). I had to print out little stickers for my keyboard but it becomes a memory thing eventually.
[.bashrc]
#APL keymap support using CAPS key as symbol shift (use SHIFT or ALT-CAPS as capslock)
setxkbmap us,apl -option grp:caps_switch