I also dabble in Dyalog APL. I have an inexplicable bias for the symbols, however I really like J and the commmunity. I have played with Jd with a trial license, and as said above, J is free and the source is available for scrutiny. I have played with using the J DLLs in my C code. I am always amazed at my takeaway understanding of a mathematics problem after working it out in J. It somehow gels it in my mind, and fits with the equations in normal math symbols.
I am one of those who stare at arrays! [1]
[1] http://www.aprogramminglanguage.com/
Re:The Q Language
by fusiongyro on Wednesday December 13, 2017 @12:41PM
(#15915815)
I like the APL symbols, but I think we could probably do better today, since we're not as limited by what we can come up with using overstriking.
Probably, but like Cuneiform's wedge-shaped marks, it brings an easy familiarity to a line or lines of text or code. It would be cool to make APl in Vulcan or Predator symbols!
Re:The Q Language
by throwaway7645 on Saturday December 16, 2017 @01:29PM
(#15940924)
Haha...I'm in the same boat and need to stick with one.
Being slightly more serious, I do web dev, mostly backend, for a radio astronomy observatory. I don't know anything about the science, but I wind up executing their routines in the cluster and doing typical database apps. I don't have much time on the side but I have been enjoying trying to learn J and realizing how much applied math is missing in my background!