[Edu-sig] ACM Urges Obama to Include CS as Core Component ofScience, Math Education

[Edward Cherlin]

On Fri, Dec 26, 2008 at 11:18 AM, gerry_lowry (alliston ontario
canada) <gerry.lowry at abilitybusinesscomputerservices.com> wrote:
> Edward Cherlin, in part:  "APL is coming".

NumPy is heavily influenced by APL, as are the math parts of Ada,
Common LISP, FORTRAN 90 and beyond, and all functional programming
languages.

> Therefore, J, APL'S successor in ASCII, makes sense in this regard.
>
> J has a small footprint and is brilliantly programmed by Roger Hui et al.

I have a copy of their published source code from several versions
back. It is amazing how Roger used the C preprocessor so that he could
write much of J in APL style, essentially giving an object definition
for nested arrays containing data of any mixture of types.

> Further, Ken Iverson was a teacher until his last breath*.

With constant insistence that the right way to learn is by
exploration. Try to invent tests that tell you what a function is and
does before you read the definition.

> The J IDE makes a great environment for teacher and student experimentation.

+1 from me, of course.

The big question is whether Eric and Roger would be willing to GPL
some version of J. The computational core would do nicely for many
purposes, although I would far rather have the complete system,
including object-oriented programming, graphics, and GUI development.

Both Alan Graham and Arthur Whitney are working on enhanced APLs under
a Free license, and have offered them for the XO.

> Regards, Gerry (Lowry)
>
> Best wishes to all for a healthy, happy, and safe holiday season.
>
>
> References:
>
>   http://sugarlabs.org/go/Creating_textbooks
>
>   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OLPC_XO-1
>
> * http://objectmix.com/apl/152815-ken-iverson-dead-83-a.html
>
> __________________________________________________________________________
> Gerry Lowry, Principal
> Ability Business Computer Services  ~~ Because it's your Business, our Experience Counts!
> 68 John W. Taylor Avenue
> Alliston · Ontario · Canada · L9R 0E1
> gerry.lowry at abilitybusinesscomputerservices.com
>
>



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