One of the most important things about an application is the Graphical User Interface (GUI for short) as this is how users interact with your app. This is why, over a series of posts, I am going to show you how to build a basic GUI in Dyalog APL.Create a blank form In this post I will be using ⎕WC … Read More
Programming Challenge: The Year Game
Happy New Year! At the start of this year, I remembered a challenge that Dyalog had come up with back in 2016 that was focused around the year 2016. So, I decided to see how I would get on trying the same challenge with the year 2021. The challenge The challenge is to write a series of expressions using the … Read More
Using Booleans (with some Dyalog APL examples)
Booleans are one of the most prominent data types used throughout computing. In programming, Booleans are mainly used in logic problems and can be used and manipulated in many ways. What is a Boolean? A Boolean is a data type used to identify a value which can only be true or false, sometimes represented as 1 or 0, respectively. The … Read More
Using a MIDI Controller With Dyalog APL
As well as being a programmer, I am a hobbyist musician. At school and in my spare time I have studied music production and music theory. I occasionally write pieces of music and I recently received a MIDI controller as a gift. Being a programmer one of my initial thoughts was ‘how can I code an interface to this device?’, … Read More
Checking for Palindromes in APL, Python and other Programming Languages
Recently we had a special date on the calendar, that some of you may have noticed. The date in question is February 2nd 2020, which when written in any of these formats: DD/MM/YYYY (UK), MM/DD/YYYY (US) or YYYYMMDD (ISO), is in fact a palindrome (excluding ‘/’ or other symbols). This made me think about how I could check for palindromes … Read More
Order of Execution in APL Programming
APL began life as a mathematical notation, created by the Canadian computer scientist Kenneth E. Iverson. Over the years it evolved into the APL programming language. There are several versions of APL but they all follow the same order of operations. When I started learning APL, one of the trickiest things was reprogramming my brain! This was because APL does … Read More
First thoughts on evolutionary programming
A talk at the Dyalog ’17 User Meeting that I must admit wasn’t on my radar, took me by surprise and really caught my attention. The talk was from Gilgamesh Athoraya of Data Analytics AB, and it was about Evolutionary Programming. The talk was a detailed take on using artificial neural networks to enable your programs to evolve. This is … Read More
Dyalog ’17 Elsinore – Day 3
Dyalog ’17 Day 3 – Wednesday September 13th 2017 Wednesday was a very busy day, we had the normal kind of talks in the morning, but then we had an eventful afternoon and evening; we had the Viking Challenge and after that the banquet. Managing a never ending project – Alexey Miroshnikov, Infostroy Ltd The first talk we had was … Read More
Stormwind Simulator at Dyalog ’16
Stormwind is a project that has gained a huge amount of interest in the APL community. This is due to the fact it is a 3D boating simulator. Where this may be commonplace in other languages, in APL this is a very unique and rare occurrence. Tomas and Stormwind Tomas Gustafsson, the creator of the Stormwind Simulator, has given many … Read More
Mount Snowdon charity climb: Report
Background The climb was all in aid of raising money for Cancer Research UK, we planned the climb for June 2nd and the weather was absolutely perfect for it, a clear day, around 18 degrees with little wind. The planned routes were using the Snowdon Ranger path for the ascent and the Llanberis path for the descent, which should’ve taken … Read More
Sam to Climb Mount Snowdon for Charity
My father and I, are raising money for Cancer Research UK by climbing Mount Snowdon, the highest mountain in England and Wales. We have set up a JustGiving page to allow people to donate to us directly without any hassle of arranging/collecting donations which in turn saves the charity money. Our target is on the ambitious side (£500) but I’m … Read More
Counting cards in APL
When I first started APL in August 2012, I was pointed in the direction of the annual International APL Problem Solving Competition run by Dyalog. I used it as method to practice what I had learnt. While I looked at the problems I saw one based on the poker game Texas hold ’em. It revolved around calculating the value of a hand with … Read More