Professor Alan J. Perlis recounts his conversion to APL after witnessing Ken Iverson demonstrate the language's remarkable expressiveness at a computing conference. Perlis, formerly an ALGOL adherent, was stunned when a complex task requiring dozens of lines in other languages could be accomplished in just ten characters of APL code, sparking his interest in a more elegant approach to programming.

The cultural divide in computing became apparent as Perlis sat between computing pioneers Fritz Bauer and Edsger Dijkstra during Iverson's presentation. While Perlis was captivated by APL's elegance, Bauer declared "APL will never be used in Munich" and Dijkstra concurred for Holland, reflecting different philosophical approaches to programming languages and their practical applications.

Perlis argues that APL and FORTRAN can coexist because they serve different purposes. FORTRAN's universality and accessibility to new programmers ensure its continued dominance, while APL offers a more artistic, concise approach to programming. Each language meets different needs, and neither will displace the other in the computing ecosystem.