NHacker Next
  • new
  • past
  • show
  • ask
  • show
  • jobs
  • submit
What does ⍋⍋ even mean? (2023) (blog.wilsonb.com)
magicalhippo 10 days ago [-]
I see weird symbols like that I think APL. I haven't touched APL but I know weird symbols when I see it.

And checking the article... Tags: apl

cocodill 10 days ago [-]
Aren't those the Twin Pines from Back to the Future?
stirfish 10 days ago [-]
Did you mean the Lone Pine?
cheschire 10 days ago [-]
You space bastard! You killed my pine!
arto 10 days ago [-]
My very first thought as well.
Qem 10 days ago [-]
Appears like the twin pines cooperativism symbol.
semiquaver 10 days ago [-]
What does [APL] even mean?
dbt00 10 days ago [-]
an obscure but very powerful matrix-centered programming language usually considered to be "write only", as in impossible to read what someone else wrote.
kcroarkin 10 days ago [-]
Find the "write only" comments you commonly see online to be untrue. I have been writing a voxel game in majority APL code for the past 6 months. I have been able to read my own code and refactor stuff I've written months ago fine while also integrating code from other APL codebases and suggestions from other people. It just has a higher learning curve to understand.
bossyTeacher 10 days ago [-]
> as in impossible to read what someone else wrote.

Can you even read what you wrote several years ago?

dylan604 10 days ago [-]
Wait, isn't that what they say about perl?
philipov 10 days ago [-]
Yes, perl is considered write-only because it is a mess of features that allow unhygienic programming habits to flourish - it is full of hard-to-trace magical behavior. Completely different than APL, which has had perl's write-only label applied to it by programmers not used to reading terse mathematical notation.
happymellon 10 days ago [-]
They say the same about RegEx too.
gerdesj 10 days ago [-]
40 years ago (at school) I generally wrote in ink - edged and straight nibs, blue and black ink because I liked it. I learned several formal styles as well as my idiosyncratic efforts. I did have biros and fibre tips etc available. I had loads of choice. My parent's generation was probably the last of the ink and nib first users.
groby_b 10 days ago [-]
Very much not.

Its origin is as a mathematical notation for algorithms. It was used to publish research reports and (IIRC) a book or two.

You're confusing "possible to read" with "accessible to people unwilling to invest any effort understanding"

jonahx 10 days ago [-]
> usually considered to be "write only"

Only by the ignorant and uninitiated.

mikelitoris 10 days ago [-]
I’m sure you’re fun to work with
jonahx 10 days ago [-]
I am!
voidfunc 10 days ago [-]
Im sure _you're_ fun to work with. Get a sense of humor.
zem 10 days ago [-]
"a programming language".
philipov 10 days ago [-]
Not to be confused with b programming language, which is not its succesor, but is the predecessor to c.
Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact
Rendered at 08:42:52 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Vercel.