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Programming Language

K

Array Language

K is a proprietary array programming language developed by Arthur Whitney, derived from APL and closely related to J, first released in 1993 and commercialized by Kx Systems. K is best known as the language underlying kdb+, a high-performance column-oriented database widely used in the financial industry for processing large volumes of time-series data, and it shares the terse, symbol-dense syntax of APL while further emphasizing execution speed.

Facts
First Released
1993 1
Significance
Foundation of the kdb+ column-oriented database used for financial products; KX Systems released kdb+, a database built on K, in 1998 1
Connections

Base Language For

Direction correction: Q was built by Arthur Whitney on top of K, not the reverse.

Built On

Direction correction: K was designed by Arthur Whitney drawing on the APL array-language tradition, not the reverse.

Sources
1. K (programming language), Wikipedia
  • Lead paragraph, third sentence
    The language, originally developed in 1993, is a variant of
  • History section, third paragraph
    In 1998, KX Systems released kdb+, a database built on K.
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