And old database engineer. How can someone like him, or me, find a job, in these times. I don't know how to do it. I don't know how to sell myself.
Actually, I've never really been good at selling myself.
I love photography. And I love this photo.
I love computers. I've always done self-study. I've always been bad at trusting teachers; I've always questioned them...I wish I hadn't.
I wish I had John R. Clark as my constant teacher. He was so smart and knew everything about everything, and if the didn't, he'd just know he didn't, and know who to ask about it. He was from Harvard.
All my friends in college looked up to him. If he didn't know an answer, there was a reason...and a person you could ask about it.
I mean, he knew everything...everything! He knew that our computers, our mainframes, would be replace by PC; so be bought the latest compatible, the Compac.
I did the same, but a cheaper one, The Leading Edge. Well, I couldn't afford much else. He knew that.
He helped me get some jobs at the college.
After my dad died, I thought of him as a father...a distant one though.
He took me in.
He taught me, first, Pascal, the first programming language that was structured. Then Prolog, the first of these artificial intelligence language...that was cool.
Then he taught me APL! APL is the language of symbols. He taught me that thinking in symbols is the way that humans think.
APL is simple. Once you think in symbols, everything else is a problems of space, memory space, I guess.
I mean APL is the best programming language ever. Everything is ether a number (a scalar), or an array.
If it's an array, than it must be an array of some dimension.
...and so forth.
So, in APL, there are no limits on dimensions.
You can play with dimensions as deep as your computer's limits provide.
...and then solve the problem.
But, that's the whole thing. You're problem isn't working within any computer's limits...it's working withing the problem's limits.
That's why APL is the ultimate problem solving language.
...and that's why John R. Clark wanted me to work on it.
-- Without Wax
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