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Is the terseness of the programming language supposed to blow my mind? I know nothing of K, other than my quick STFW, which says it is some kind of proprietary language. What would that look like in say Python, I wonder?

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the terseness isn't supposed to blow your mind, it's an artifact of k's iversonian heritage. the first iversonian language, apl, was originally intended as a kind of mathematical notation for computer programs, a compact notation for defining algorithms-as-mathematical-objects. imagine a programming teacher writing code on a chalkboard to the same degree a math teacher writes math on a chalkboard and the need for compact notation becomes obvious, i think.

for reference, golfed k code is typically 1/2 to 1/3 the size of golfed python code, which would be somewhat hard to read for a python programmer unfamiliar with golfing tricks. probably around 1/4 or 1/5 the size of ordinary python code.

Do you mean normal (idiomatic) k code is 1/2 to 1/3 of golfed Python? Because that seems more accurate. This code by John is not golfed.

I meant golfed vs golfed. Eg, this is a pretty typical result (14 vs 38):

https://codegolf.stackexchange.com/questions/258335/shortest...

EDIT: Actually, my memory failed me. I just took a quick survey of some more questions and 4x or 5x seems typical for golfed vs golfed.

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