I understand the appeal of array languages — they provide very convenient shortcuts to common loop constructs in traditional imperative scalar languages. Their usefulness is manifest in the popularity of NumPy (and its derivatives, e.g. TensorFlow, PyTorch, JAX, etc.), MATLAB, Julia, R, and other Iverson Ghosts [0]. The rise of map/reduce/filter operations in common scalar programming languages is also testament to array languages' usefulness.
I understand (though do not personally agree with) the appeal of extreme terseness — there are arguments to be made that maximizing information density minimizes context switching, since it reduces the amount of scrolling. Personally, I find that large displays and split buffers mitigate this issue, whereas the mental overhead of using my short-term memory to map dozens of single letter variables to semantic definitions is much higher than having to flip between splits/marks in my text editor. (The fact that the aforementioned Iverson Ghost languages are popular whereas APL and its derivatives are not is evidence that I'm aligned with most people in this regard.)
I don't understand why people rarely make the terseness argument for non-array languages, even though it's just as easy to write tersely in them — the Obfuscated C Competition is a prime example [1]. Is it just due to the influence of APL, or is there something special about array languages that gives them a unique proclivity for terseness?
[0] https://dev.to/bakerjd99/numpy-another-iverson-ghost-9mc
[1] https://www.ioccc.org, https://github.com/ioccc-src/winner/blob/master/2020/ferguso...
I understand (though do not personally agree with) the appeal of extreme terseness — there are arguments to be made that maximizing information density minimizes context switching, since it reduces the amount of scrolling. Personally, I find that large displays and split buffers mitigate this issue, whereas the mental overhead of using my short-term memory to map dozens of single letter variables to semantic definitions is much higher than having to flip between splits/marks in my text editor. (The fact that the aforementioned Iverson Ghost languages are popular whereas APL and its derivatives are not is evidence that I'm aligned with most people in this regard.)
I don't understand why people rarely make the terseness argument for non-array languages, even though it's just as easy to write tersely in them — the Obfuscated C Competition is a prime example [1]. Is it just due to the influence of APL, or is there something special about array languages that gives them a unique proclivity for terseness?
[0] https://dev.to/bakerjd99/numpy-another-iverson-ghost-9mc
[1] https://www.ioccc.org, https://github.com/ioccc-src/winner/blob/master/2020/ferguso...