In defence of C

[Evan Leibovitch]

Alex Beamish wrote:

> From what I remember of APL, it was seriously terse -- someone 
> described it as "Chicken scratches crossed with Greek." Having 
> developed in Perl for a couple of years, I would say APL makes Perl 
> look like BASIC.

During the brief time I worked with APL, the interface was a converted 
IBM selectric typewriter with a special "golf ball" and keyboard overlay 
to produce the chicken scratches.

Alex is right about the terseness; I recall that programs were rarely 
more than 60 characters long. You'd type the handful of characters on 
the typewriter, hit enter, and stand back as reams of output spewed out. 
I would say that APL makes Perl look like COBOL.

The best thing about APL to me was its acronym.

- Evan

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