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L-one-two-three (L1:.L2:.L3:) considered harmful

Author:

F. H. D. van BatenburgAuthors Info & Claims

ACM SIGAPL APL Quote Quad, Volume 21, Issue 4

Pages 330 - 337

https://doi.org/10.1145/114055.114092

Published: 01 July 1991 Publication History

Abstract

It is said by non-APL-programmers that APL code is hard to read and that it is unstructured. Here we argue that APL-programmers may refute this assertion by pointing out some misunderstandings, but admittedly a final analysis will show a deeper truth in these criticisms. We will show that APL gives ample opportunity for unstructured code. Two proposals are presented to address this problem.The first rejects the developed convention for labelling and suggests the adoption of a proper style of programming enforced by a new standard of labelling. This standard will abolish unstructured code. Both negative and positive aspects of this proposal are discussed.The second proposal revives an old idea of introducing one single proper control structure into the language. This would make the current jump (→) superfluous and enforce structured code.

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Cited By

Beaumont N(1995)Is APL2 a good programming language?ACM SIGAPL APL Quote Quad10.1145/206944.20694625:4(1-10)Online publication date: 8-Jun-1995
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/206944.206946
Beaumont NHowland J(1995)Is APL2 a good programming language?Proceedings of the international conference on Applied programming languages10.1145/206913.206946(1-10)Online publication date: 8-Jun-1995
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/206913.206946
Willhoft R(1993)Structured APLACM SIGAPL APL Quote Quad10.1145/166198.16623524:1(304-315)Online publication date: 1-Sep-1993
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/166198.166235
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

L-one-two-three (L1:..L2:..L3:) considered harmful
1. General and reference
  1. Document types
    1. Computing standards, RFCs and guidelines
2. Software and its engineering
  1. Software notations and tools
    1. General programming languages
      1. Language types

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Published In

cover image ACM SIGAPL APL Quote Quad

ACM SIGAPL APL Quote Quad Volume 21, Issue 4

Aug. 1991

390 pages

ISSN:0163-6006

DOI:10.1145/114055

Editor:
Jan M. Engel

Issue’s Table of Contents

APL '91: Proceedings of the international conference on APL '91
July 1991
396 pages
ISBN:0897914414
DOI:10.1145/114054
Chairman:
Charles A. Schulz

Copyright © 1991 Author.

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 01 July 1991

Published in SIGAPL Volume 21, Issue 4

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Cited By

Beaumont N(1995)Is APL2 a good programming language?ACM SIGAPL APL Quote Quad10.1145/206944.20694625:4(1-10)Online publication date: 8-Jun-1995
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/206944.206946
Beaumont NHowland J(1995)Is APL2 a good programming language?Proceedings of the international conference on Applied programming languages10.1145/206913.206946(1-10)Online publication date: 8-Jun-1995
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/206913.206946
Willhoft R(1993)Structured APLACM SIGAPL APL Quote Quad10.1145/166198.16623524:1(304-315)Online publication date: 1-Sep-1993
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/166198.166235
Willhoft R(1993)Structured APLProceedings of the international conference on APL10.1145/166197.166235(304-315)Online publication date: 1-Sep-1993
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/166197.166235
van Batenburg FBos VRiethoven JAbrahams JPley C(1992)Porting and optimising starACM SIGAPL APL Quote Quad10.1145/144052.14416623:1(265-274)Online publication date: 15-Jul-1992
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/144052.144166
van Batenburg FBos VRiethoven JAbrahams JPley C(1992)Porting and optimising starProceedings of the international conference on APL10.1145/144045.144166(265-274)Online publication date: 15-Jul-1992
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/144045.144166
Mahdian MNazerzadeh HSaberi A(2012)Online Optimization with Uncertain InformationACM Transactions on Algorithms10.1145/2071379.20713818:1(1-29)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2012
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2071379.2071381
Guha SMunagala K(2012)Adaptive Uncertainty Resolution in Bayesian Combinatorial Optimization ProblemsACM Transactions on Algorithms10.1145/2071379.20713808:1(1-23)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2012
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2071379.2071380
Martin SThomaszewski BGrinspun EGross M(2011)Example-based elastic materialsACM Transactions on Graphics10.1145/2010324.196496730:4(1-8)Online publication date: 25-Jul-2011
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2010324.1964967
Wang HO'Brien JRamamoorthi R(2011)Data-driven elastic models for clothACM Transactions on Graphics10.1145/2010324.196496630:4(1-12)Online publication date: 25-Jul-2011
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