budd@arizona.UUCP (tim budd) (02/18/85)
See the paper that, as far as I know, coined the term APL Idiom - by Perlis and Rugaber - ``Programming with Idioms in APL'', APL 79 Conference (rochester, ny). pp232-235. There was also a Yale Technical Report that contained more examples (I don't remember the number, but if you write to Robert Block, Department of Computer Science, Yale University, they can probably help you). I believe, too, that the FinnAPL communnity also had a large list of idioms. You might check the last couple years worth of SigAPL publications.
g-luner@gumby.UUCP (02/19/85)
There is a standard IBM publication that contains some very useful functions. Formatting headers, charts and things like that. Some of the techniques used, such as combinations of logical scans, can be used in many other situations. An IBM office should be able to get it for you (at a price, but there's no such thing as a free lunch). /David
dgary@ecsvax.UUCP (D Gary Grady) (02/22/85)
<>
Anyone interested in APL idioms should look for STSC's booklet
_Collected Whizbangs_. I have one labeled "Volume 1," so there may be
several. It is an excellent reference on better programming in APL,
including "idioms" and explanations of why technique A works better than
technique B in a give situation. STSC is located at 7316 Wisconsin
Ave., Bethesda, MD 20014 (301) 657-8220. I've no connection with
STSC.
--
D Gary Grady
Duke U Comp Center, Durham, NC 27706
(919) 684-3695
USENET: {seismo,decvax,ihnp4,akgua,etc.}!mcnc!ecsvax!dgarywatapl@watmath.UUCP (APL Project) (02/25/85)
The ``FinnAPL Idiom Library'' is published by the
Finnish APL Association
P.O.Box 1005
SF-00101 Helsinki 10
FINLAND
The library has hundreds (631 to be exact) of useful phrases.
Some of them are quite elementary, like -/X for Alternating sum,
but others are not so simple, like ``Removing duplicates from an ordered
vector'', or ``Polynomial with roots X'', or ``Removing duplicate rows''.
There are two there features of the book that increase its value
immensely: the SYNONYM LIST, and the PERMUTED INDEX. The synonym
list has its useful and obvious advantages, but I have never seen
anything like the permuted index before, and it is really nice.
For instance, the entry "polynomial with roots x" appears in at
least two places in the list, under polynomial, and under roots.
The lines for these two entries have the same words, but the
indentation is controlled so that the key word appears in the
middle of the page. Thus, this entry appears on one page among
value of polynomial with coefficients ...
polynomial with roots X 47
derivate of polynomial X 430
and also on another page among
interpretation of roman numbers 342
polynomial with roots X 47
... X left with Y without rotate 387
I think that you can get the book from APL Press or from FinnAPL directly.
--
watapl@watmath.UUCP
watapl%watmath@waterloo.CSNET
... {ihnp4, allegra, decvax} !watmath!wataplpeters@cubsvax.UUCP (Peter S. Shenkin) (02/28/85)
> The synonym >list has its useful and obvious advantages, but I have never seen >anything like the permuted index before, and it is really nice. >For instance, the entry "polynomial with roots x" appears in at >least two places in the list, under polynomial, and under roots. >The lines for these two entries have the same words, but the >indentation is controlled so that the key word appears in the >middle of the page. > Look at the beginning of the UNIX manual; lo, all commands entered in a permuted index! Peter S. Shenkin cubsvax!peters