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Monday, October 19, 2015

Won Another Award!


This is what my LinkedIn profile reads:



Yes, I love competitions for obvious reasons. In light of this context I will walk you through a competition I have recently participated in, the DyalogAPL competition.
Dyalog APL is similar to other coding contests in that you have to implement an algorithm to achieve a particular solution. It’s different in that you have to implement the solution in a language called APL short for (A Programming Language), why such an obvious name? Because programmers have such a sense of humor. APL is also known to stand for (Array Programming Language) because it is focused on array manipulation. APL is as esoteric as the name sounds.
 APL is written in Greek symbols in a special keyboard and IDE you have to install. By the way, the license is free for educational purposes (students and instructors). The code below returns the length of the array named ‘arr’:



APL is all also about one-liners. Rarely will you need to use loops and for the competition it is discouraged.
This snippet below sums up all the elements in an array.



Read also about APL on my previous blogpost here.
The DyaogAPL competition has two phases, Phase I which is easier than Phase II. Submitting Phase I answers is prerequisite to Phase II. Unlike other coding contests, the questions are released way before the submission deadline (about 2 months).
I won the participatory award which is awarded to the top 20 submissions, check out the winners here. I could have done better, it was challenging to learn this new language while learning 4 others for coursework, but I’m proud I did its. Looking forward to more competition in 2016.


2 comments:

  1. Congratulations Culey. Am always inspired by your competitive personality simply trying to be better than the person you were yesterday. Keep it Up. Have learned a few Comp Science Languages. APL aar +1 34 45 is not that bad for a psychologist

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  2. Nice one keep it up, am inspired.

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