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Dimitri Lozeve 2020-07-20 10:38:39 +02:00
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_site/posts/ising-apl.html
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</section>
<section>
<h2 id="the-apl-family-of-languages">The APL family of languages</h2>
<h2>Table of Contents</h2><ul>
<li><a href="#the-apl-family-of-languages">The APL family of languages</a><ul>
<li><a href="#why-apl">Why APL?</a></li>
<li><a href="#implementations">Implementations</a></li>
</ul></li>
<li><a href="#the-ising-model-in-apl">The Ising model in APL</a></li>
<li><a href="#conclusion">Conclusion</a></li>
</ul>
<h2 id="the-apl-family-of-languages">The APL family of languages</h2>
<h3 id="why-apl">Why APL?</h3>
<p>I recently got interested in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APL_(programming_language)">APL</a>, an <em>array-based</em> programming language. In APL (and derivatives), we try to reason about programs as series of transformations of multi-dimensional arrays. This is exactly the kind of style I like in Haskell and other functional languages, where I also try to use higher-order functions (map, fold, etc) on lists or arrays. A developer only needs to understand these abstractions once, instead of deconstructing each loop or each recursive function encountered in a program.</p>
<p>APL also tries to be a really simple and <em>terse</em> language. This combined with strange Unicode characters for primitive functions and operators, gives it a reputation of unreadability. However, there is only a small number of functions to learn, and you get used really quickly to read them and understand what they do. Some combinations also occur so frequently that you can recognize them instantly (APL programmers call them <em>idioms</em>).</p>