## page was renamed from TenGoodThings == Ten Good Things About APL == <> The purpose of this document is to outline some of the reasons that APL thrives more than forty years after its origination - both as a notational tool and as a vehicle for computer programming. 0. The right-to-left execution rule (and the left-to-right reading rule). . The multiple and arbitrary conventions of mathematics are replaced by a single consistent and extensible rule. 0. APL is ubiquitous. . There are implementations of APL available on hardware ranging from the mobile phone through to the corporate mainframe. 0. Multiple vendors. . The APL programmer is not dependent on a single supplier, many applications written in APL have been easily ported across different versions of the language. 0. Longevity. . APL has been around a long time, because it works. This also means that there are APL developers and development teams with considerable experience and real-world maturity and applications with decades of continuous use and continued development. 0. This is a multidimensional world. . APL is intrinsically multi-dimensional, making the mapping between reality and program code more direct. 0. APL coexists with other technology. . Applications written in APL make use of data generated by other development tools, APL reacts to the outside world - from the paper tape to the Net. 0. Freedom from pseudo-English. . Because APL is a symbolic notation it surmounts language barriers - the Norwegian APL programmer can read the Japanese programmer's code directly. 0. Conciseness aids on-demand development. . In a world of rapidly-changing requirements it is vital to create and amend code concurrently. APL is not verbose. 0. Broad spectrum of applicability. . APL has been used for everything from exploring mathematical physics to programming payroll applications. 0. People like APL. . Which is the ultimate strength - it may not be for everyone, but for the people who relate it becomes almost an addiction. Note - The original version of this page can be found at http://www.dogon.myzen.co.uk/APL/Misc/tengood.html. The version here may have changed out of all recognition as other people have added their worldviews. == And some more good things... == Here are some more suggestions for what's special about APL which aren't in Dick's original list of 10... 11 . APL is interactive . As APL programmers this seems so obvious that it's easy to overlook, but getting instant answers encourages you to experiment. If you have to spend any time programming in Java or C#, you quickly tire of the edit-compile-link cycle. 12 . APL has a workspace . Although you might not want to keep source code in a workspace for large applications, the option to keep code and test data together in a convenient place can be very useful for rapid prototyping. Page Created by DickBowman ---- CategoryEssays