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I like it that they are adding more and more functionalities from J, probably because Roger Hui is involved in this. The namespace system in Dyalog APL works f

by jxy 9y ago

I like it that they are adding more and more functionalities from J, probably because Roger Hui is involved in this. The namespace system in Dyalog APL works far better than J's locale, IMHO. The only problem is that you can't get the source code. Look around, in this 21st century, how many interpreters are still closed sourced? I really worry about their long term survivability.

sndean 9y ago
> I really worry about their long term survivability. Me too. It's a relief that GNU APL has become a viable alternative, in case Dyalog goes under.
- throwaway7645 9y ago
  Do you use GNU APL? I talked to the maintainer once, but not aware of its speed and maturity.
  - sndean 9y ago
    I've only used it enough to see that majority of the code I write in Dyalog APL will run there as well. Perhaps I should start in GNU APL in the first place, but Dyalog's environment is just nicer
    - throwaway7645 9y ago
      Yea, good point. The libraries appear to be fairly good at least (ODBC, DDE, plots, R interface...etc).
throwaway7645 9y ago
Closed source is less of a problem for me than the draconian licensing. Paying such steep costs to use in production is a no go for me. I could afford the $1500 personal productivity tool fee for just myself, but then none of my coworkers can use anything I write which probably doesn't help advertising. I really like the symbols more than J, but J ends up being more practical for me. I think if array langs are to take off, kx systems would have to make their software free and just charge for support, but I doubt they'll do that with how much money they're making.
- protomyth 9y ago
  I still don't get the companies that cannot take the lessons of Smalltalk vendors. It's no accident Borland could sell product and Smalltalk vendors died off with developer and deployment fees. I still think there is a place for paid tools, but more JetBrain / old Borland then ParcPlace.
  - throwaway7645 9y ago
    Yea. Ain't nobody wanna pay a deployment fee. Visual Studio charges for the IDE as I understand it which you don't even have to use.

by jxy 9y ago

sndean 9y ago

> I really worry about their long term survivability. Me too. It's a relief that GNU APL has become a viable alternative, in case Dyalog goes under.

throwaway7645 9y ago
Do you use GNU APL? I talked to the maintainer once, but not aware of its speed and maturity.
- sndean 9y ago
  I've only used it enough to see that majority of the code I write in Dyalog APL will run there as well. Perhaps I should start in GNU APL in the first place, but Dyalog's environment is just nicer
  - throwaway7645 9y ago
    Yea, good point. The libraries appear to be fairly good at least (ODBC, DDE, plots, R interface...etc).

throwaway7645 9y ago

Closed source is less of a problem for me than the draconian licensing. Paying such steep costs to use in production is a no go for me. I could afford the $1500 personal productivity tool fee for just myself, but then none of my coworkers can use anything I write which probably doesn't help advertising. I really like the symbols more than J, but J ends up being more practical for me. I think if array langs are to take off, kx systems would have to make their software free and just charge for support, but I doubt they'll do that with how much money they're making.

protomyth 9y ago
I still don't get the companies that cannot take the lessons of Smalltalk vendors. It's no accident Borland could sell product and Smalltalk vendors died off with developer and deployment fees. I still think there is a place for paid tools, but more JetBrain / old Borland then ParcPlace.
- throwaway7645 9y ago
  Yea. Ain't nobody wanna pay a deployment fee. Visual Studio charges for the IDE as I understand it which you don't even have to use.