The Concepts and Confusions of Prefix, Infix, Postfix and Fully Functional Notations

[Reilly]

On Jun 10, 3:11 pm, Larry Elmore <ljelm... at verizon.spammenot.net>
wrote:
> Twisted wrote:
> > On Jun 9, 8:21 pm, "BCB" <b... at undisclosedlocation.net> wrote:
> >> "Paul McGuire" <p... at austin.rr.com> wrote in message
>
> >>news:1181414625.121073.203940 at g4g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
>
> >>> On Jun 9, 6:49 am, Lew <l... at noemail.lewscanon.com> wrote:
> >>>>> In particular, Perl code looks more like line
> >>>>> noise than like code from any known programming language. ;))
> >>>> Hmm - I know of APL and SNOBOL.
> >>>> --
> >>>> Lew
> >>> TECO editor commands.  I don't have direct experience with TECO, but
> >>> I've heard that a common diversion was to type random characters on
> >>> the command line, and see what the editor would do.
> >>> -- Paul
> >> J
>
> >>http://www.jsoftware.com/
>
> > Oh come on! Toy languages (such as any set of editor commands) and
> > joke languages (ala Intercal) don't count, even if they are
> > technically Turing-complete. ;)
>
> > Nor does anything that was designed for the every-character-at-a-
> > premium punch-card era, particularly if it is, or rhymes with,
> > "COBOL".
>
> > Those have excuses, like it's a joke or it's a constrained
> > environment. Perl, unfortunately, has no such excuses. If there were
> > such a thing as "embedded Perl", I'd have to hesitate here, but since
> > there isn't...
>
> Neither APL nor Snobol nor J are toy or joke languages.

I'd like register my agreement.  SNOBOL was a very sophisticated
language and way ahead of its time in many ways.  While it's not
really used anymore, SNOBOL's legacy does live on in languages that
are in wide use.

APL and it's successors (including J & K) are neither toys nor extinct
relics.  APL is still used in a variety of applications.  The price of
the last airline ticket you bought was probably determined by a yield
management application written in APL.  K was created in 1993 and Kx
systems has built an incredibly valuable company on top of it.

APL's terseness has more to do with the Iverson's notational goals
than economy with characters related to punchcards.  In fact, the
dominant languages of the punchcard era (COBOL & FORTRAN) are both
pretty verbose.

Lastly, ITS Teco wasn't a joke or toy language either.. It was
psychotically terse and virtually impenetrable to later review.  But
it wasn't a toy.  When I learned to use EMACS, it was still
implemented in ITS Teco.