4 ms·

Kparc/kcc: k crash course

28 points by sansnomme 7y ago

t0astbread 7y ago
This looks really cool but what is the real use case for it? If I have no graphics, no easy way to serve HTTP resources and no other weird/niche use cases, what can I use k for outside of academic and financial applications? Don't get me wrong I think this looks very interesting and I'd love to use it but I wanna use it for real software and I don't see how k makes that easier for me compared to popular widespread languages.
snagglegaggle 7y ago
Looks like APL all over again.
ddrdrck_ 7y ago
Seems very informative and well written but I am surprised APL and Kenneth Iverson are not mentioned anywhere in the "genesis" section.
- i_don_t_know 7y ago
  That's indeed surprising. The main site of the organization (not sure what to call them) does show the history and relationship to Iverson, APL and J: https://kparc.io/ https://kparc.io/
ncmncm 7y ago
Use of APL variants on Wall Street is always exaggerated.
chrispsn 7y ago
You may also find this work-in-progress reference document useful: https://ref.kparc.io/ https://ref.kparc.io/
tom_mellior 7y ago
x = x + 1 "Most programmers will agree that this expression makes perfect sense, but if you show it to a math guy, be ready to hear "no, it isn't". And once you see what makes him think that way, you will also see why we assign values with : in k." This is pretty dumb. Show "x : x + 1" or even "x : y + 1" to a math person and they will not know what you mean either. There is a non-universal convention in math of using a "defining semicolon" with equals signs, so you could say "x := y + 1" and math people would probably interpret it the same way you do, though they might not like "x := x + 1". But all this is irrelevant anyway: Progamming is not math. Other parts of the syntax of k don't look very mathy either. Preferring ":" over "=" or something else for assignment is a choice on the part of the language designers, but it has nothing to do with not confusing poor mathematicians.

28 points by sansnomme 7y ago

This looks really cool but what is the real use case for it? If I have no graphics, no easy way to serve HTTP resources and no other weird/niche use cases, what can I use k for outside of academic and financial applications? Don't get me wrong I think this looks very interesting and I'd love to use it but I wanna use it for real software and I don't see how k makes that easier for me compared to popular widespread languages.

snagglegaggle 7y ago

Looks like APL all over again.

ddrdrck_ 7y ago

Seems very informative and well written but I am surprised APL and Kenneth Iverson are not mentioned anywhere in the "genesis" section.

i_don_t_know 7y ago
That's indeed surprising. The main site of the organization (not sure what to call them) does show the history and relationship to Iverson, APL and J: https://kparc.io/ https://kparc.io/

ncmncm 7y ago

Use of APL variants on Wall Street is always exaggerated.

chrispsn 7y ago

You may also find this work-in-progress reference document useful: https://ref.kparc.io/ https://ref.kparc.io/

tom_mellior 7y ago

x = x + 1 "Most programmers will agree that this expression makes perfect sense, but if you show it to a math guy, be ready to hear "no, it isn't". And once you see what makes him think that way, you will also see why we assign values with : in k." This is pretty dumb. Show "x : x + 1" or even "x : y + 1" to a math person and they will not know what you mean either. There is a non-universal convention in math of using a "defining semicolon" with equals signs, so you could say "x := y + 1" and math people would probably interpret it the same way you do, though they might not like "x := x + 1". But all this is irrelevant anyway: Progamming is not math. Other parts of the syntax of k don't look very mathy either. Preferring ":" over "=" or something else for assignment is a choice on the part of the language designers, but it has nothing to do with not confusing poor mathematicians.