I want to look in the eyes of a person who decided that it is a good idea to call a function which produces an integer range “iota”
Dmitrii Kovanikov
 @ChShersh
Oct 20
I haven't shared beautiful C++ code for a while. Here's some FP in C++ for a treat.
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It is called iota because in APL, an obscure array programming language from 1960, which used an ancient IBM 2741 keyboard, the “⍳” symbol produced a range
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So people from the C++ standards committee decided that the best way to name a C++11 (and then C++23) function is to use a reference to an obscure array programming language from 1960s (which is of course familiar to everyone)
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.@code_report did we have an episode of @adspthepodcast talking about the naming of iota?
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Replying to @blelbach @norpadon @adspthepodcast
If you search for iota here adspthepodcast.com/search, it returns a number of results. Seems like episode 55/56 when we talked about a LeetCode problem it guests mentioned both times (in C++ & APL)

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Oct 22, 2025 · 11:53 AM UTC
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