On Jun 10, 3:11 pm, Larry Elmore <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Twisted wrote: > > On Jun 9, 8:21 pm, "BCB" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> "Paul McGuire" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message > > >>news:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > >>> On Jun 9, 6:49 am, Lew <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 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. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
