Role Summary
As a software developer at Dyalog, Silas is responsible for improving and fixing various sections of the APL interpreter.
Biography
Silas’ computing education started with the advent of the Raspberry Pi, a device that led his curiosity for “How things Work” further along technical avenues. He subsequently studied Computer Science at university, and discovered Dyalog Ltd whilst attempting to find a job as his graduation date approached. Dyalog Ltd had recently posted an opening on the APL Wiki; although he thought a more experienced developer would be required, he applied, and, following correspondence and interviews, was hired.
Silas’ first forays into APL were through the online forums that he’d discovered, researching historic roads not taken and new developments within compiler and language design. Through this exploration Silas found the Nanopass Framework and Co-dfns . This research, and the C tricks exploited by some compilers, also led to K through Arthur Whitney’s incunabulum – the first system Silas actually installed!
John Scholes’ succinct Game of Life and Depth-first search videos were also instrumental in Silas’ discovery of APL. The expressiveness of the language to clearly state complicated ideas intrigued him, following as it did his use of other domain-focused languages.
