APL Character Set and Browsers
Transliteration

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This method involves replacing an APL character not in the ASCII graphic set with a word or other expression (a "transliteration") in ASCII.

Details

This method has its obvious appeal, and there are examples elsewhere in this discussion. Using an agreed-upon APL-ASCII transliteration scheme is often suggested for the following reasons:

• Desire to "write something quickly"
• Used as a method to explain an APL concept
• Provide a standard basis for "cutting and pasting" into an interpreter (assuming there is a method, preferably easy, such as an APL program, to translate the text into APL characters for the target APL interpreter)
• Provide a basis for "workspace interchange"

However, the method clearly is a "temporary fix" which sidesteps the main issue of how to display the APL character set. And, to paraphrase a clever comment from comp.lang.apl ...

[The method] loses one of the prominent characteristics of APL, the compactness and mnemonic quality of its notation. Sort of like presenting the concept of decimal notation for addition using "twenty-three plus one-hundred-thirty-seven" and apologizing for the inability to write digits ...