I think it's something you just have to learn to believe it. Otherwise you'll doubt it forever and ever. APLers have learned, and they want to keep their symbols.
I can only speak for myself, and I know I'd be confused seeing code that says (enclose bind grade-up index right), but when I see it spelled in APL as (⊂∘⍋⌷⊢), I will immediately recognize it as sort.
It really does feel similar to the difference between "es you es aitch I" and "sushi".
I don't need to spell out every symbol, that just makes it harder to pattern-match and see the meaning.
Oh, this interesting little thing I noticed just now: jodrellblank also mentioned "enclose bind grade_up index self_right" hours before me in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28095934
And I had read that comment! It just didn't register at all when I read that comment; even though I read it word by word, I did not realize that he also wrote the sort train (until I read it again now and converted to symbols in my head). Yet I would have immediately recognized it had I seen it written as APL symbols.
Visual pattern matching can be strong. (It's what allows you to recognize and read words that you do not know how to spell correctly.)
I can only speak for myself, and I know I'd be confused seeing code that says (enclose bind grade-up index right), but when I see it spelled in APL as (⊂∘⍋⌷⊢), I will immediately recognize it as sort.
It really does feel similar to the difference between "es you es aitch I" and "sushi".
I don't need to spell out every symbol, that just makes it harder to pattern-match and see the meaning.