[Jorge1o1]

As a kdb+/Q programmer I would say it depends on the type of problem.

For example, when working with arrays of data it certainly is easier to think and write “avg a+b” to add two arrays together and then take the average.

In a non-array programming language you would probably first need to do some bounds checking, then a big for loop, a temporary variable to hold the sum and the count as you loop over the two arrays, etc.

Probably the difference between like 6ish lines of code in some language like C versus the 6 characters above in Q.

But every language has features that help you reason about certain types of problems better. Functional languages with algebraic data types and pattern matching (think OCaml or F#) are nicer than switch statements or big if-else-if statements. Languages with built-in syntactic sugar like async/await are better at dealing with concurrency, etc.

[sudosysgen]

Well no, not in a non-array programming language. In any language that has a semi-decent type/object system and some kind of functional programming support, `avg a+b` would just be `avg(a, b)`, which is not any easier or harder, with an array type defined somewhere. Once you make your basic array operations (Which they have to be made in q anyways, just in the stdlib), you can compose them just like you would in q, and get the same results. All of the bounds checking and for-loops is unnecessary, all you really need are a few HKTs that do fancy maps and reduces, which the most popular languages already have.

A very real example of this is Julia. Julia is not really an array-oriented programming language, it's a general language with a strong type system and decent functional programming facilities, with some syntactic sugar that makes it look like it's a bit array oriented. You could write any Q/k program in Julia with the same complexity and it would not be any more complex. For a decently complex program Julia will be faster, and in every case it will be easier to modify and read and not any harder to write.

[otteromkram]

Why would it be avg(a, b)?

What if I want to take the average difference of two arrays?

[rak1507]

I don't know what you mean by the q array operations being defined in the standard library. Yes there are things defined in .q, but they're normally thin wrappers over k which has array operations built in.

[lll-o-lll]

Which is why C# is the giant ever increasing bag of tricks that it is (unkind people might say bloat…) ;-) Personally, I’m all for this; let me express the problem in whatever way is most natural.

There are limits, of course, and it’s not without downsides. Still, if I have to code in something all day, I’d like that “something” be as expressive as possible.