On: Thinking in an array language

[fifilura]

> Another one of his points is that people who have not learned traditional programming find array-based programming much easier to pick up.

I have had the same experience when teaching SQL.

I feel like it is difficult for people who have worked with imperative languages to grasp, while people who come from the Excel school (e.g. business people or researchers) actually enjoy it and may even pick it up faster.

I believe SQL and array languages have this and probably much more in common. I am probably out of my league here, but I think I'd call SQL a set language rather than array language. But feels like they are related.

[RyanHamilton → fifilura]

They are and if SQL had been based on arrays/lists rather than sets I think we would have been better off. See examples here: https://www.timestored.com/b/kdb-qsql-query-vs-sql/

[fifilura → RyanHamilton]

I have a feeling that the fact that SQL is inherently unordered is very important for making it fast and distributed.

I am thinking about map/reduce types of jobs.

Is that something you have solved?