I found this part remarkable:
> The executable language to be used is APL, a general-purpose language which originated in an attempt to provide clear and precise expression in writing and teaching, and which was implemented as a programming language only after several years of use and development.
This is also how Python started out! I always thought, "Python is so easy for beginners because it is a teaching language." Well, so is APL!
Lisp is similar to APL in that sense. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisp_(programming_language)#Hi...:
“Steve Russell said, look, why don't I program this eval… and I said to him, ho, ho, you're confusing theory with practice, this eval is intended for reading, not for computing. But he went ahead and did it. That is, he compiled the eval in my paper into IBM 704 machine code, fixing bugs, and then advertised this as a Lisp interpreter, which it certainly was. So at that point Lisp had essentially the form that it has today”