Setting and Getting Variable Values in APL - Proposed System Functions

Explore advanced techniques for setting and getting variable values in complex programming systems through this conference talk from Dyalog '23. Dive into common usage scenarios and learn about the challenges of dynamic variable naming. Discover proposed system functions for improved readability and performance, including name-value pairs (⎕NV), getting a name (⎕NG), and setting a name (⎕NS). Examine performance comparisons between error guards and explicit checking. Gain insights into practical applications such as setting default arguments, merging values from multiple namespaces, querying data objects with defaults, constructing namespaces, populating class fields, and converting between tables and namespaces. Conclude with a summary of the draft proposal for these new system functions in APL programming.

Common usage scenarios
Set variable values is awkward and slow
Getting the value of a variable is also
Comparing performance of error guard vs explicit checking
Getting name value pairs from a namespace
Name set ⎕NS
Name get ⎕NG
Name value pairs ⎕NV
Basic usage examples
Set default left argument to tradfn
Merge values from multiple namespaces
Query data objects with defaults for missing values
Construct a namespace from names and values
Populate class fields from names-value pairs
Convert between table and namespace
Check the value of an optional global
Draft proposal summary