[Info-vax] DCL's flaws (both scripting and UI)

[Bill Gunshannon]

In article <36a713ca-0a0a-4994-bd6d-5e9d0f9dab38 at googlegroups.com>,
	cmexec at gmail.com writes:
> On Tuesday, January 20, 2015 at 2:39:14 PM UTC-5, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
> 
>> 
>> Once again, matter of opinion.  Back when IBM was in it's prime they
>> were partnered with Marist College in Poughkeepsie.  We used to get
>> their interns for summer work.  Whizes with APL couldn't do anything
>> with COBOL or Fortran.
> 
> The last time I had access to an APL compiler, I was wanted not to use it.
> Turns out it was a transpiler which wrote BASIC.  Both ran on a 
> DECSYSTEM-10 and the BASIC was interpreted.
> 
> Much to the dismay of a fellow who learned APL because it had a
> reputation for doing large calculations "faster".

Immplementation shortcoming, not language shortcoming.  All of the APL's
I have used were "large calculation fast".  Even the one on the Z80. :-)

Anecdote:  I worked with a guy at west Point who wrote an APL program
that took all the winning numbers for the New York State Lottery (this
was back when there was pretty much only one per state) Immplementation shortcoming, not language shortcoming.  All of the APL's
I have used were "large calculation fast".  Even the one on the Z80. :-)

Anecdote:  I worked with a guy at West Point who wrote an APL program
that took all the winning numbers for the New York State Lottery (this
was back when there was pretty much only one lottery per state) and
searched for a patterns so he could predict a winning combination. 
In all the years I was there he never succeeded as far as I know.  :-)

bill

-- 
Bill Gunshannon          |  de-moc-ra-cy (di mok' ra see) n.  Three wolves
billg999 at cs.scranton.edu |  and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.
University of Scranton   |
Scranton, Pennsylvania   |         #include <std.disclaimer.h>