1990 paper questioning the direction and future of APL, linked to the lineage that produced Iverson’s J language.
Key Takeaways
The paper’s URL resolves to jsoftware.com/papers/J1990.htm, placing it in the J Software canon – the direct successor to APL developed by Kenneth Iverson.
The title’s question mark signals the paper interrogates APL’s design assumptions, not just documents them.
An HTML version exists at the jsoftware.com papers archive, making it more accessible than the PDF originally linked.
Primary interest for modern readers: understanding the conceptual inflection point between APL and J.
Hacker News Comment Review
One commenter building an APL+Prolog+Lustre hybrid language had not encountered this paper before – suggesting it is underexposed even among active array-language practitioners.
The PDF link requires a ?download=true parameter to bypass browser rendering, though Cloudflare may still block direct access; the HTML mirror at jsoftware.com is the practical read.
Notable Comments
@tern: building an APL-lineage language (APL+Prolog+Lustre) and found this paper new to them; surfaces the jsoftware.com HTML version as the usable link.
