Adding a modern control structure to APL without changing the syntax

ABSTRACT

In the paper it is demonstrated how through the use of appropriately named defined functions and labels practically all modern control construct types can be introduced into APL, thus greatly enhancing the possibilities of writing understandable and well-structured APL programs. A technique is developed which allows the nesting of these control constructs to any arbitrary depth. A solution is presented which even allows to write coroutines in APL, hence providing a whole new scope of APL programming.

REFERENCES

• 1: Philip S. Abrams, What's wrong with APL?, Proceedings of seventh international conference on APL, p.1-8, June 11-13, 1975, Pisa, Italy [doi>10.1145/800117.803777]
• 2: Giloi, W.K.: APL as a General-Purpose High-Level Language, Univ. of Minnesota, CSci Tech. Report 75-19 (Dec. 1975).
• 3: Harris, L.R.: A Logical Control Structure for APL, APL Congress 1973, American El-sevier, New York 1973, 203-210.
• 4: Kelley, R.A.: APLGOL, An Experimental Structured Programming Language, IBM J. of Research and Development 17, l(Jan. 1973), 69-73.
• 5: Knuth, D.E.: Structured Programming with GOTO Statements, Stanford University Tech. Report STAN-CS-74-416.
• 6: C. A. R. Hoare, Algorithm 64: Quicksort, Communications of the ACM, v.4 n.7, p.321, July 1961 [doi>10.1145/366622.366644]
• 7: Lim, A.L. and Lewis, G.R.: Towards Structured Programs in APL, The Computer Journal 18.2, 140-143.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  D. Software
  D.3 PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES
      D.3.2 Language Classifications

          Nouns: APL

Additional Classification:
  D. Software
  D.3 PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES
      D.3.3 Language Constructs and Features
          Subjects: Control structures

General Terms:
Languages