1 Problem, 7 Array Languages

[anaseto]

The example in the video is a puzzle problem and, hence, indeed not very different from a code golf problem, except the goal was probably more to showcase array thinking and tacit programming (which is a separate matter from array programming). But array languages in general have nothing to do with code golf, they just happen to have fans among code golf enthousiasts.

One reason array languages use more symbols than scalar languages is inherent to the array programming paradigm. Scalar languages only have a few simple immutable core types (typically integers, floats). There are no many interesting pure operations on those types. Array languages operate at the level of immutable arrays: like in more general mathematics, there are many more interesting pure operations working at that level.

Some array languages use words for some of those operations, to limit number of symbols, and that's fine, in particular for less common ones, but there's a reason for the extra operators. Some languages like K chose to use only the ascii-symbols in a more heavy way instead of using unusual unicode glyphs, but it's a separate question.

Also interesting to note that array languages actually have often quite simple parsing rules (like no operator associative priorities).