> "There was a better example a couple of weeks ago here in a thread, someone had done a bit of APL or K for Advent of Code or something and posted a line, and someone else broke it down and explained how it worked. I spent an hour just now with Algolia trying to find it but I failed. :("
Or could it have been on an Advent of Code link? There have been some explanations in the answers mega-threads on Reddit. Anyway, yes I agree more explanations would be benficial - and I think there would be room for an animated explainer website with small blocks representing the array elements, coloured by how they are grouped by each primitive operation, and visually showing them moving round and splitting and combining. Such a thing would make a lot more sense for an array language than for many languages.
Ach! Yes, thank you! That comment! LOL I feel a little silly now.
Your explanation was fantastic, and yeah I think the availability of more information like that would go a long way towards lowering the barrier for people to pick up these languages. Even if they don't actually use APL and it's ilk they can still get a better idea of how to use things like Numpy by getting familiar with the concepts and idioms that support them.
(I forgot to mention "A History of APL in 50 Functions" https://www.jsoftware.com/papers/50/ I just started working my way through that and it's been very helpful.)
> and I think there would be room for an animated explainer website with small blocks representing the array elements, coloured by how they are grouped by each primitive operation, and visually showing them moving round and splitting and combining. Such a thing would make a lot more sense for an array language than for many languages.
Thanks; yes I agree more examples like that would help. That PythonTutor site looks brilliant, I will have to play with it some more. It's a lot like I was imagining.
It wasn't a couple of weeks ago, but I did that for a line here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30463080
Or could it have been on an Advent of Code link? There have been some explanations in the answers mega-threads on Reddit. Anyway, yes I agree more explanations would be benficial - and I think there would be room for an animated explainer website with small blocks representing the array elements, coloured by how they are grouped by each primitive operation, and visually showing them moving round and splitting and combining. Such a thing would make a lot more sense for an array language than for many languages.