<games, programming> A game popular among hackers who code
in the language APL (see write-only language and line
noise). The objective is to see who can code the most
interesting and/or useful routine in one line of operators
chosen from APL's exceedingly hairy primitive set. A
similar amusement was practiced among TECO hackers and is
now popular among Perl aficionados.
Ken Iverson, the inventor of APL, has been credited with a
one-liner that, given a number N, produces a list of the prime
numbers from 1 to N inclusive. It looks like this:
(2 = 0 +.= T o.| T) / T <- iN
where "o" is the APL null character, the assignment arrow is a
single character, and "i" represents the APL iota.
[Jargon File]
(2000-03-19)
Nearby terms:
Ondine « one-banana problem « one-line fix « one-liner wars » ones complement » One-Time Password » One Time Programmable Read-Only Memory
