Re: Extract number from character field(Perl syntax)

Lol, if you think Perl is bad, you should see APL.  APL keyboards had another
character for each key.  Most of them were greek characters, but some where
just new.  One was a BOX something like [] but as one character, and meant
input or output.  And then you had the left and right arrows -> and <- which
were one character.  So something like []->a  would mean, input a value from
the dumb tube to A.  And []<-a would mean print a out to the dumb tube.

Every character was a keyword.  So you would have a one line program
about 25 to 50 characters long that was a complete program, with looping,
value checking, etc... and looked like total gibberish.  I mean, the first time
I saw APL code on my display I thought the machine was talking 7 bit when
my tube was talking 8 bit and was showing gibberish.

Regards,

Jim Langston

Joel Fritz wrote:

> Actually, the RPG example below looks like gibberish to me too.  I've never
> had to use internally described files.  I'll have to paste it into SEU and
> see what some of that stuff means. <g>
>
> I do agree with your real point about not everything being self explanatory
> when the reader/viewer lacks necessary background information.  It is a
> little scary reading code that uses symbols available on most keyboards that
> you're not sure how to pronounce.  Reminds me of the Arthur C Clarke thing
> about any sufficiently advanced technology looking like magic.
>

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