On Thu, 7 Nov 2019 at 00:16, Martin Euredjian via Python-ideas <python-ideas@python.org> wrote:
Sorry, notation is far more powerful. As I said in one of my other notes, people who have not had the unique experience of using something like APL for non-trivial development work simply don't get it.
Was your use of APL on a machine with a dedicated APL keyboard? I know the old IBM terminals had dedicated APL symbol keys. The point has been made here a few times that typing extended characters reliably is hard, but you haven't as yet responded to that (as far as I can see). While I haven't used APL much, I do a reasonable amount of mathematical writing, and I find that it's frustratingly difficult to express mathematical ideas on a computer, because the need to find ways of writing the notation (whether it's by looking up Unicode symbols, or remembering notation like LaTeX) breaks the flow of ideas. So while I won't dispute that writing APL may have been highly productive for you, I'd like to get some information on how much of that productivity was demonstrated on a system with a conventional keyboard. Without good evidence that the productivity gains you're suggesting can be achieved on the input devices that real-world Python users have available, one of your main arguments in favour of this change is significantly weakened. Paul