Notation as a Tool of Talk

The title of is post is a pun on Notation as a Tool of Thought, a famous essay written by Ken Iverson, the creator of APL and other array languages. I listen to various podcasts, two of which are the Array Cast, which concerns itself with array languages, and ADSP, which contains an eclectic mix of programming topics, but very frequently discusses structured parallel programming. The Array Cast is hosted by Conor Hoekstra and a variety of highly skilled array programmers, while ADSP is co-hosted by Bryce Adelstein Lelbach, the current CUDA C++ core library lead (among many other things).

The fascinating thing is that both podcasts have many episodes where experts discuss topics with essentially the same subject - structured parallel programming. In the Array Cast, the discussion is conducted in the vocabulary defined by APL, while ADSP tends to use C++ terms mostly derived from the “algorithms” standard library (as well as third party variants such as Thrust. what I’ve anecdotally noticed is that the programming discussion on the Array Cast tends to be at a much higher level, simply because the concision and richness of the APL vocabulary allows many more details to be conveyed, even in spoken form. Discussing code details, which is a textual medium, on a podcast is always a dubious proposition, but the richer vocabulary of APL clearly allows the discussion to be more focused than when using the more clumsy vocabulary of C++, which involves far too many irrelevant things such as iterators and overloaded operators. It’s not about the cryptic or mnemonic APL symbols (depending on your perspective); it’s about having composable high-level concepts, and these exist independently of how you may print them.

Let me emphasise that the reason for this difference is absolutely not due to the different host skill levels. Not only is Conor a common factor across both podcasts, but Bryce is obviously an expert parallel programmer and a fine presenter (example), but discussing algorithms using the C++ vocabulary is like sewing while wearing mittens.

That said, the APL vocabulary isn’t all upsides. Quite often, the Array Cast is derailed by discussions of obscure edge cases involving overloaded or implicit operations (e.g. overtaking for a mild example) - notational shorthands that may help with the terseness of written code, but seems to make oral discussion difficult, as you end up with concepts that are difficult to name. Of course, it’s possible that this quirk can be blamed on the hosts.

(As a final note, let me strongly recommend listening to anything that Conor produces - his enthusiasm for whatever he chooses to talk about is highly contagious. If you work in parallel programming and ever struggle with motivation, just listen to one of his episodes on e.g. parallel C++ algorithms, and be reminded of the enthusiasm that got you into the field in the first place.)