<story><title>K programming language (2005)</title><url>http://archive.vector.org.uk/art10010830</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>beagle3</author><text>This concise article describes K2 (version 2 of the K language), and, at the level it describes, little has changed, so it is still a good introduction to the language 12 years later.&lt;p&gt;However, beyond the basics, a lot has changed since (current commercial version is K4, current dev is K6 AFAIK): Dictionaries have become better integrated in the language, the database layer was rolled into the language, the integrated (bare bones and milspec-looking but ultra effective) electric GUI was dropped, http and web (as both client and server) were added to the core, 64-bit integers, nanosecond timestamps, GUIDs were added as core types, and probably a few more things I forgot.&lt;p&gt;If you find this article interesting, you may want to experiment with JohnEarnest&amp;#x27;s ok [0], which provides graphical playground (implemented in JS and runs everywhere) and also read Q for mortals[1] - Q is a syntactic-sugar version of K4, though still the same language underneath.&lt;p&gt;[0] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;github.com&amp;#x2F;JohnEarnest&amp;#x2F;ok&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;github.com&amp;#x2F;JohnEarnest&amp;#x2F;ok&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;code.kx.com&amp;#x2F;q4m3&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;code.kx.com&amp;#x2F;q4m3&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>K programming language (2005)</title><url>http://archive.vector.org.uk/art10010830</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>icen</author><text>If you want to try out K, you can either go to Kx and download the 32bit version of kdb+. \ at the prompt (on its own) will enter K mode. This uses K4.&lt;p&gt;Alternatively, there&amp;#x27;s the free and open source Kona, which is an implementation of K3, the preceding version.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;kx.com&amp;#x2F;download&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;kx.com&amp;#x2F;download&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;github.com&amp;#x2F;kevinlawler&amp;#x2F;kona&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;github.com&amp;#x2F;kevinlawler&amp;#x2F;kona&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>