Haskell APL Interpreter: A Challenging Journey
2025-06-05
This project details the creation of an APL interpreter in Haskell. APL's array-based nature and highly concise syntax presented significant challenges. The author iteratively refined the interpreter, starting with a basic parser and evolving to a sophisticated implementation leveraging Haskell's capabilities and refining parsing techniques, from context-free grammars to optimized uses of monads and applicatives. While the final interpreter has minor discrepancies compared to Dyalog APL, it functions effectively. The project highlights Haskell's power in handling complex grammars and higher-order functions, while also revealing the steep learning curve and debugging complexities inherent to the language.
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