I have the same question for K aficionados as I have for Forth ones: what real-world, human-usable, important software has been written in it? A GUI framework, a web browser, a window manager, a text editor, etc. Anything?
I'm asking because the article is poking at C-like languages, i.e. implying that K is good for general-purpose use. Yet all I hear about is that K is good at multiplying numbers and matrices, which is a pretty limited playground.
OKAD, which was used to create the processor with the lowest power usage per instruction in the entire world.
k:
Important, no, but a substantial volume of stuff. Text editors, GUIs, window managers, operating system completely independent of any other, a pretty important and very expensive database, so on.
k, unlike Forth, came after software was seen as IP. Software as IP has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.
k's ancestor, APL, was used in quite a few things quite elegantly, and while k is different, it's not different enough to be a different paradigm. Some examples: first practical electronic mail system, first widely-used electronic mail system (used for Carter's successful Presidential campaign, for example), first worldwide computer network, I could go on.
That k hasn't seen as much groundbreaking work done in it is less because of the language itself and more because of the insane costs, trigger-happy lawyers of kx, and money.
Sorry, but I'm not the one trolling. Reading up on "Canon Cat", I find
> It had a text-based interface without a mouse, icons, or menus
sigh
The Forth in space thing is just some drivers/firmware for spaceships. I.e. once again nothing that an ordinary user would care about. The APL part is devoid of links to real contemporary software. Not even something of Notepad++ quality...
Please don't waste your time as you don't seem to want to understand my question. Thank you.
Don’t know about K, but SimCorp is a financial software company that has its original software built in APL. Of cause these days they are also doing a lot in other languages.
I'm asking because the article is poking at C-like languages, i.e. implying that K is good for general-purpose use. Yet all I hear about is that K is good at multiplying numbers and matrices, which is a pretty limited playground.