Learning resources

From APL Wiki
Revision as of 13:06, 14 November 2019 by Miraheze>Adám Brudzewsky (→‎Tacit programming)
Jump to navigation Jump to search
The printable version is no longer supported and may have rendering errors. Please update your browser bookmarks and please use the default browser print function instead.

"I have long been struck by the contrast between the success with which the adventurous learn APL by simply using it, and the frequent failure of lecture courses to communicate the simplicity and applicability of the language."

Ken Iverson. A Working Introduction to APL, 1981.

For non-programmers

Some of the best resources for somebody new to APL and programming in general are:

Follow one or a couple of these tutorials through and play around a bit. To learn APL the advice is similar to that for learning other languages: have a goal (something you want to accomplish) and try to do it. Along the way you are sure to come across the pitfalls and gotchas of the language, and with time you may come to understand what APL thinking means.

If you get stuck, don't hesitate to ask your questions in the APL Orchard chat room.

For non-APL programmers

This is a list of tutorials and other resources of interest to someone who knows about programming or is familiar with another programming language, but wants to learn more about APL.

For novice APLers

If you already have a fair grasp of APL's primitive functions and operators, you can sharpen your skills by challenging yourself with these:

  • Crosswords: Fill in APL expressions and snippets to fulfil all the clues.
  • 2016 Year Game: Find APL expressions involving exactly the digits 2 0 1 6 in that order to equal the numbers 0 to 100.
  • 2017 Code Golf Challenge: Find the shortest possible APL expression that evaluates 1…52 without using any number or character literals.

For old APLers

In the last decade, several implementations have extended APL with new primitives:

Functions

Operators

Lambdas

Tacit programming

Dyalog APL documentation: Intro, Details

Videos: Short, Long

Other features

How to's for advanced APLers

Template:APL programming language