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[apl/en] Add a short APL introduction (#722)
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nooodl committed May 12, 2024
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These examples can be tested here:
http://ngn.github.io/apl/web/index.html
Comments in APL are prefixed by ⍝.

A list of numbers. (¯ is negative)
2 3e7 ¯4 50.3

An expression, showing some functions. In APL, there's
no order of operations: everything is parsed right-to-
left. This is equal to 5 + (4 × (2 ÷ (5 - 3))) = 9:
5 + 4 × 2 ÷ 5 - 3 9

These functions work on lists, too:
1 2 3 4 × 5 5 10 15 20
1 2 3 4 × 5 6 7 8 5 12 21 32

All functions have single-argument and dual-argument
meanings. For example, "×" applied to two arguments
means multiply, but when applied to only a right-hand
side, it returns the sign:

× ¯4 ¯2 0 2 4 ¯1 ¯1 0 1 1

Values can be compared using these operators (1 means
"true", 0 means "false"):

10 20 30 = 10 20 99 1 1 0

10 20 30 < 10 20 99 0 0 1

"⍳n" returns a vector containing the first n naturals.
Matrices can be constructed using ⍴ (reshape):
4 3 5 0 1 2
3 4 0
1 2 3
4 0 1

Single-argument ⍴ gives you the dimensions back:
4 3 5 4 3

Values can be stored using ←. Let's calculate the mean
value of a vector of numbers:
A 10 60 55 23

Sum of elements of A (/ is reduce):
+/A 148

Length of A:
A 4

Mean:
(+/A) ÷ (A) 37

We can define this as a function using {} and ⍵:
mean {(+/)÷}
mean A 37

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