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Glossary Of Apl Terms

Contents

Glossary Of Apl Terms
1. APL Glossary
2. Discussion
  1. intro
  2. Suggestion

↓↓↓↓ Discussion moved to bottom ↓↓↓↓

APL literature includes many terms describing the language whose meanings are rigorously defined but might have slightly different meanings in APL than elsewhere either by being more or less specific. This list is not exhaustive but is intended to cover the most important of them.

APL Glossary

Term	Description
primitive	native to the language and referenced as a single character
defined	created by lexical definition by direct assignment or in an editor
derived	created by juxtaposition as a combination of more than one previously existing operation
argument	object passed as parameter to an operation
array	data valued object of zero or more orthogonal dimensions in which each item is a number, a character or another array
variable	named array
function	primitive, defined or derived operation that takes zero, one or two array valued arguments and may return an array valued result
operator	primitive or defined operation that takes one or two function or array valued arguments (operands) and derives a function result
operand	more specific name for argument when applied to those of an operator
valence	degree or number of arguments or operands of an operation
niladic	accepting no arguments; having valence zero
monadic	accepting or requiring one argument or operand; having valence one
	(of a function) having its only argument on the right
	(of an operator) having its only operand on the left
dyadic	accepting or requiring two arguments or operands; having valence two
	(of a function) having two arguments: left & right
	(of an operator) having two operands: left & right
ambivalent	capable of monadic or dyadic behaviour
nomadic	used by some APLs as a synonym for 'ambivalent'
shape	(of an array) length of each dimension
type	(of an array) array of identical structure in which all numbers are zero and all characters are blanks
prototype	(of an array) the type of its first item
empty	(of an array) having one or more dimensions of length zero
rank	(of an array) number of dimensions
	(of a function) ranks of arguments to which it applies
scalar	(of an array) having zero dimensions
	(of a function) applying to scalars
vector	(of an array) having one dimension
	(of a function) applying to vectors
matrix	(of an array) having two dimensions
	(of a function) applying to matrices
simple	(of a scalar) a single character or number
	(of an array) composed entirely of simple scalars
nested	(of an array) having one or more items or a prototype which is not a simple scalar
depth	(of an array) the number of levels of nesting where an item or prototype is other than a simple scalar
strand	lexical juxtaposition of array valued names or expressions to form a larger, possibly nested, array
workspace	area of computer memory containing arrays and defined &/or derived operations or a file containing a preserved binary image of such
noun	alternative term for array
verb	alternative term for function
adverb	alternative term for monadic operator
conjunction	alternative term for dyadic operator

Discussion

Please have a glance at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APL_(programming_language)#APL_Glossary

intro

The wikipedia table has kilobytes of criticism on its Discussion page, is inconsistent, ungrammatical and should be replaced or removed.

The following (preferably a better version) could be copied to wikipedia or the existing table could just be replaced with a link back here after we get it right.

Please criticise it (the table above) mercilessly, add, amend, delete and let's get a consensus. Don't be frightened, you can hit [Preview] as many times as you like to get it right and you can always [Cancel] before [Save Changes] if you think you've messed it up.

Try to keep it as far as possible that terms used in a description are defined previously in the table. Try to keep it short enough that it doesn't attract criticism from others that we've just copied the language reference. Oh, and I think it'd be better left without examples. I've assumed: 'object', 'parameter', 'operation', 'assignment' & 'data' as being terms whose general meanings don't differ sufficiently across most computer languages to require a definition here.

Over and out! -- PhilLast 2009-06-11 17:45:40

Suggestion

Could you perhaps include the term 'valence' when discussing function signatures?
- done! - see above but please, Ajay, feel free to add or amend at will.
The WIKIPEDIA reference mentions 'nomadic': have I missed something all these years?
- so does this - see above; used by APLX for ambivalent.

CategoryAboutApl

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-||<rowstyle="background-color: #F3F5F7"> Term ||Description||
+||<rowclass="odd"> Term ||Description||
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-||defined||created by lexical definition by direct assignment or in an editor||
+||<rowclass="odd">defined||created by lexical definition by direct assignment or in an editor||
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-||argument||object passed as parameter to an operation||
+||<rowclass="odd">argument||object passed as parameter to an operation||
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-||variable||named array||
+||<rowclass="odd">variable||named array||
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-||operator||primitive or defined operation that takes one or two function or array valued arguments (operands) and derives a function result||
+||<rowclass="odd">operator||primitive or defined operation that takes one or two function or array valued arguments (operands) and derives a function result||
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-||valence||degree or number of arguments or operands of an operation||
+||<rowclass="odd">valence||degree or number of arguments or operands of an operation||
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-||monadic||accepting or requiring one argument or operand; having valence one||
+||<rowclass="odd">monadic||accepting or requiring one argument or operand; having valence one||
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-|| ||(of an operator) having its only operand on the left||
+||<rowclass="odd"> ||(of an operator) having its only operand on the left||
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-|| ||(of a function) having two arguments: left & right||
+||<rowclass="odd"> ||(of a function) having two arguments: left & right||
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-||ambivalent||capable of monadic or dyadic behaviour||
+||<rowclass="odd">ambivalent||capable of monadic or dyadic behaviour||
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-||shape||(of an array) length of each dimension||
+||<rowclass="odd">shape||(of an array) length of each dimension||
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-||prototype||(of an array) the type of its first item||
+||<rowclass="odd">prototype||(of an array) the type of its first item||
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-||rank||(of an array) number of dimensions||
+||<rowclass="odd">rank||(of an array) number of dimensions||
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-||scalar||(of an array) having zero dimensions||
+||<rowclass="odd">scalar||(of an array) having zero dimensions||
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-||vector||(of an array) having one dimension||
+||<rowclass="odd">vector||(of an array) having one dimension||
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-||matrix||(of an array) having two dimensions||
+||<rowclass="odd">matrix||(of an array) having two dimensions||
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-||simple||(of a scalar) a single character or number||
+||<rowclass="odd">simple||(of a scalar) a single character or number||
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-||nested||(of an array) having one or more items or a prototype which is not a simple scalar||
+||<rowclass="odd">nested||(of an array) having one or more items or a prototype which is not a simple scalar||
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-||strand||lexical juxtaposition of array valued names or expressions to form a larger, possibly nested, array||
+||<rowclass="odd">strand||lexical juxtaposition of array valued names or expressions to form a larger, possibly nested, array||
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-||noun||alternative term for array||
+||<rowclass="odd">noun||alternative term for array||
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-||adverb||alternative term for monadic operator||
+||<rowclass="odd">adverb||alternative term for monadic operator||