APL deserves its renaissance too
Neat little tribute article.<p>APL will not be reborn. If that was going to happen, this century&#x27;s embrace of analytics and linear-algebra-rich machine learning would have propelled the upswell. It didn&#x27;t and it won&#x27;t.<p>Why? It&#x27;s not the symbols. Not the keyboard. Nor the learning curve. Nor the lack of standardization, libraries, or GPU support. These are collateral damage, not primary drivers.<p>APL will not flourish because it is effectively a DSL with archaic I&#x2F;O capability. It is a nearly-pure functional programming language. It&#x27;s primary domain is mathematics. Native GUIs, networking, the web -- all uncompetitive add-ons.<p>In this sense, APL and Haskell share some DNA.<p>For dynamic systems modeling for my thesis, I reached for APL and Matlab. I still code Dyalog APL for recreation. Love it. But I wouldn&#x27;t build a web app with it and a wouldn&#x27;t run my company on it.