language aesthetics

[William Tanksley Google]

"Mike Rovner" <mike at bindkey.com> wrote:
>"William Tanksley Google" <wtanksleyjr at cox.net> wrote:
>>fun learning a language based on K and Joy, named "cK". It's a stack based
>>array language -- essentially a cross between APL and Forth, without odd
>>characters.

>Both APL and Forth are very milestone.
>Any one of them is polar different from Python in each own way.

I'm not recommending APL or Forth, though; merely languages which can
be compared to them.

>APL is very cryptic, probably the most cryptic language made.
>Yes, it's powerful, but like stenography is not good for human beings. ;)

Have you used it? I've tried; my experience is that it's tons of fun
to write, so much that rewriting a program in APL is as practical as
reading a program in other languages.

However, I gave up because I couldn't stand the alphabet; APL uses MANY
nonstandard characters. K fixes that; it uses only ASCII, and does so
in a very clean way.

>Forth is most flexible, the only syntax element you can't redefine is space.
>So you (have to) design the language for the task and not everyone is up to
>it.

There's a difference between "have to" and "can".

>They are nice and elegant in there ways and achieve _their_ design goals
>perfectly, but these goals are very different from Python.

If your desire is to learn another language, learn a different language.
If you don't want to learn another language, then by all means follow
that advice.

> Mike

-Billy