[Syzygies]

My missive a few years ago about APL at Swarthmore in the mid-1970s:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27460887

> In the mid-seventies at Swarthmore College, we were mired in punched card Fortran programming on a single IBM 1130. ... Late one Saturday night, I made a misguided visit to the computer center while high, smelled sweat and fear, and spun to leave. Too late, a woman's voice: "Dave! I told Professor Pryor he needed you!" ... So busted! Then I heard this voice “See these square brackets? See where you initialize this index?” He was spectacularly grateful.

> One cannot overstate the rend in the universe that an APL terminal presented, catapulting me decades into the future.