APL has a better mental "feeling" for me, more like mathematical symbols. Oftentimes, these are pretty direct.
Want to drop the first element of a vector?
APL: 1 ↓ 1 2 3 4 5
J: 1 }. 1 2 3 4 5
The APL version looks like a drop to me. The J version looks like two characters that I have to remember the meaning of.
I'm sure if I was deeply proficient at J, the two-characters would stand out by their meaning, but it's hard for me to get that far when APL is so much cleaner for me to read.
The APL version looks like addition (cons, prepending value to a list) to me. The point being that you have to learn the meaning of symbols anyway, no matter which character set they use. Going for easier input (from the keyboard) and sacrificing a bit of legibility for this is a perfectly fine design trade off to me.
APL has a better mental "feeling" for me, more like mathematical symbols. Oftentimes, these are pretty direct.
Want to drop the first element of a vector?
APL: 1 ↓ 1 2 3 4 5
J: 1 }. 1 2 3 4 5
The APL version looks like a drop to me. The J version looks like two characters that I have to remember the meaning of.
I'm sure if I was deeply proficient at J, the two-characters would stand out by their meaning, but it's hard for me to get that far when APL is so much cleaner for me to read.