I use both J and Dyalog APL. It is my understanding that Arthur Whitney, Roger Hui and Ken Iverson himself worked on J. The goal was not just to address the difficulty of using non-ASCII character, but to add funtional programming, hook and fork, easier tacit programming and fix certain other issues that even Ken Iverson himself acknowledged [1][2].<p>PS: I use Dyalog APL because I do personally like the once-alien-to-me characters!<p>[1] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.jsoftware.com&#x2F;papers&#x2F;APLPersonalView.htm" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.jsoftware.com&#x2F;papers&#x2F;APLPersonalView.htm</a>
[2] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.jsoftware.com&#x2F;papers&#x2F;autobio.htm" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.jsoftware.com&#x2F;papers&#x2F;autobio.htm</a>