System functions

The name System Function is informally applied to all built-in names which begin with the quad symbol (⎕), even if they are actually operators, variables, or constants. We’ll cover these roughly in the order presented here.

System functions are things that are not really part of the core language, but have been wrapped into items which conform with normal APL syntax. You can therefore use system functions together with normal APL functions and operators. However, note that many system functions are “shy”, meaning that they suppress implicit display of their result, and some even do this selectively.