by Ajay Askoolum » October 14th, 2018, 3:22 am
It is not the name of the language but the fact that it remains a black box that is the issue. Hence my suggestion for APL For C# Developers. In other words, the APL+Win documentation needs to focus on recruiting new users.
In its hey day, nothing came close to matching APL functionality. It provided a self contained development environment; you did not even have to understand any aspect of the operating system APL was running under. This proved to be a a huge attraction. Over time:
1. the number of people so attracted are dwindling fast.
2. the weaknesses in the language becomes more and more exposed.
3. other languages, being better documented by way of worked examples on the internet, represent a less steep wall for those new to programming and APL fails to attract.
Where APL has been innovative, it has failed to capitalize because it has been for existing developers, not newcomers.
An APL with reserved keywords in place of symbols at user discretion (i.e. you can choose whether you want to use keywords or symbols) might be the catalyst that gives APL a look-in in this, the age of data lakes where big budgets are being used to identify competitive edge strategies or to make them profitable.
The data deluge means that a self-contained environment no longer makes sense - APL needs to cater for multi-structured hybrid input from outside of its workspace and component files, almost in real time. Data is now more highly perishable and volatile - workspace repositories are no longer fit for purpose.