The APL Bay Area Users' Group (The Northern California SIGAPL of the ACM) will meet on Thursday the 21st of January to hear Robert Bernecky speak on ways to speed up APL, J and related languages.
Thursday, 21 January 2010 6 p.m. - Bring takeout supper and network. 7 p.m. - Robert Bernecky speaks.
Functional array languages, such as APL, J, SAC, and SISAL, are computer languages with their roots in linear algebra. Being abstract, functional, and array-based, they are excellent tools of thought. As well as being amenable to formal analysis and algebraic simplification, they exhibit parallelism at levels including primitive verbs, expressions, defined verbs, compositions of verbs, and verbs derived from adverbs and conjunctions.
Until recently, these benefits have been sullied by poor performance, compared to C and Fortran, their scalar-oriented, imperative cousins, with array-based code often executing several orders of magnitude slower.
We present recent research results in functional array language optimization that show a closing of that performance gap, with array language code matching or beating scalar code on single core benchmarks, as well as offering significantly better performance on multi-core systems and GPU-based systems, all achieved without application code alterations.
Biography
Robert Bernecky has designed and developed APL systems since 1971. While at I.P. Sharp Associates Limited, he was one of the people responsible for the design and development of SHARP APL, a system that set the standard for performance of large-scale APL systems. He has authored papers on language design, algorithm design, and interpreter performance.
Bernecky is the CEO of Snake Island Research Inc, a consulting and research firm headquartered in Toronto.
Bernecky developed APEX -- the APL Parallel Executor -- a high- performance, retargetable APL compiler for serial and parallel computers.
Bernecky holds a BA in philosophy from SUNY at Buffalo, an MSc in Computer Science from the University of Toronto, and is trying to finish his PhD before his PhD finishes him. He is a member of ACM and IEEE. Bernecky lives on Ward's Island in Toronto with no cats anymore.
> The APL Bay Area Users' Group (The Northern California SIGAPL of the > ACM) will meet on Thursday the 21st of January to hear Robert Bernecky > speak on ways to speed up APL, J and related languages.
> Thursday, 21 January 2010 > 6 p.m. - Bring takeout supper and network. > 7 p.m. - Robert Bernecky speaks.
Can I put in a request that a transcript be made available for those of us who would love to attend but can't.
There is a regular meeting of APL people here in London, UK every last Friday of the month and it would be good to be able to have the material like this to discuss as well.
> On Jan 20, 12:41 am, MichaelHughes<Mich...@Hughes.uk.com> wrote: >> ... >> Can I put in a request that a transcript be made available for those >> of us who would love to attend but can't.
> Michael, > If all goes well Chuck Kennedy will get an MP3 audio recording from > the talk that can be made available. Curtis
This (I suspect largely laziness-driven) trend toward MPS3 and videos is absolutely deplorable. In most case they bring nothing to the table that a written transcript wouldn't and they exclude scores of people: those with hearing deficiencies, those not proficient in the tongue in question, those who can't make heads or tails of the speaker's accent etc etc. Please do consider putting up a transcript.
Capturing an informal talk as a recording is a lot easier than making a proper transcript (I guess this is what you mean by laziness-driven) and since I speak the same language as Bob (more or less: he *was* an American; but I digress) I would much appreciate hearing it.
Producing a good transcript may be very difficult - especially considering the difficulty of properly hearing comments made by others (questions from the floor, asides that lead to clarifications, etc). The mp3 would be great; a transcript (in addition) would be priceless. I don't think the use of mp3 or video is deplorable: they are merely a partial solution to the problem of preserving useful events for historical record.
"Olivier Lefevre" <lefev...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> On 1/21/2010 1:14 AM, Curtis A. Jones wrote: >> On Jan 20, 12:41 am, MichaelHughes<Mich...@Hughes.uk.com> wrote: >>> ... >>> Can I put in a request that a transcript be made available for those >>> of us who would love to attend but can't.
>> Michael, >> If all goes well Chuck Kennedy will get an MP3 audio recording from >> the talk that can be made available. Curtis
> This (I suspect largely laziness-driven) trend toward MPS3 and videos > is absolutely deplorable. In most case they bring nothing to the table > that a written transcript wouldn't and they exclude scores of people: > those with hearing deficiencies, those not proficient in the tongue > in question, those who can't make heads or tails of the speaker's > accent etc etc. Please do consider putting up a transcript.
On Sat, 23 Jan 2010 12:03:04 -0500, Kerry Liles wrote: > Capturing an informal talk as a recording is a lot easier than making a > proper transcript (I guess this is what you mean by laziness-driven) [... deleted ...]
A reservation I have about audio/video capture is that using it is a real-time experience - with paper/slides/text/etc. I can scan and decide how much time I want to put into reviewing the material - and it's easy for me to annotate.
I really think the right way to approach this is for the presenter to create whatever materials they think the subject matter deserves. I don't like the idea of third parties summarising.
If someone says "this is a one-off talk and isn't worth preserving" that's their prerogative.
On Jan 21, 12:14 am, "Curtis A. Jones" <curtis_jo...@ieee.org> wrote:
> On Jan 20, 12:41 am, MichaelHughes <Mich...@Hughes.uk.com> wrote:
> > ... > > Can I put in a request that a transcript be made available for those > > of us who would love to attend but can't.
> Michael, > If all goes well Chuck Kennedy will get an MP3 audio recording from > the talk that can be made available. Curtis
Many many thanks - I would have replied earlier but I'm just back in the UK from a week in South Africa. I'm sorry I provoked the controversy, mine was just a simple request for ANYTHING covering the talk, as I couldn't be there in person, so anything was better than nothing. Knowing the cost of these things and the time people have to put into producing them, I was really asking this as a favour rather than as a commercial product to receive complaints.
Again if you can put something up for download/email I would be grateful.
We all know that this is volunteer work and of course one cannot *demand* anything. I just don't want people to delude themselves that audio and video recordings are just fine and that the need for transcripts is gone: there's still nothing like the written word.
"Producing a good transcript may be very difficult - especially considering the difficulty of properly hearing comments made by others (questions from the floor, asides that lead to clarifications, etc)."
If even someone who was present can't make sense of the MP3 afterward, how easy do you suppose it will be for listeners who didn't attend the original event? If that is the case, then the MP3 will be useless.
But I think you're just wheeling out the old excuse whereby if one can't do a perfect job, then one should not do it at all, which is of course nonsense: just like according to you an MP3 is better than nothing, a partial transcript is better than no transcript.
> We all know that this is volunteer work and of course > one cannot *demand* anything. I just don't want people > to delude themselves that audio and video recordings are > just fine and that the need for transcripts is gone: > there's still nothing like the written word.
> "Producing a good transcript may be very difficult - > especially considering the difficulty of properly > hearing comments made by others (questions from > the floor, asides that lead to clarifications, etc)."
> If even someone who was present can't make sense of > the MP3 afterward, how easy do you suppose it will be > for listeners who didn't attend the original event? > If that is the case, then the MP3 will be useless.
> But I think you're just wheeling out the old excuse > whereby if one can't do a perfect job, then one should > not do it at all, which is of course nonsense: just > like according to you an MP3 is better than nothing, > a partial transcript is better than no transcript.
> Regards,
> -- O.L.
I would like to have both the .mp3 and a transcript. If a transcript is not available, I would still like to have the .mp3
> But I think you're just wheeling out the old excuse > whereby if one can't do a perfect job, then one should > not do it at all, which is of course nonsense: just > like according to you an MP3 is better than nothing, > a partial transcript is better than no transcript.
an attitude which was once summed up (if somewhat ambiguously) as
> > But I think you're just wheeling out the old excuse > > whereby if one can't do a perfect job, then one should > > not do it at all, which is of course nonsense: just > > like according to you an MP3 is better than nothing, > > a partial transcript is better than no transcript.
> an attitude which was once summed up (if somewhat ambiguously) as
> "if a job's worth doing, it's worth doing badly"
On Jan 20, 12:41 am, MichaelHughes <Mich...@Hughes.uk.com> wrote: ...
> Can I put in a request that a transcript be made available for those > of us who would love to attend but can't.
> There is a regular meeting of APL people here in London, UK every last > Friday of the month and it would be good to be able to have the > material like this to discuss as well.
> Regards > Mike
Joey Tuttle agreed to post Bob Bernecky's notes for "Functionality is Free".
<kerry.removethisandoneperiod.li...@gmail.com> wrote: > .. > I would like to have both the .mp3 and a transcript. > If a transcript is not available, I would still like to have the .mp3
The MP3 recorder quit early in the talk, so we don't have an MP3. I'm sorry.
Since this is part of Bob's Ph.D. research there will certainly be real papers. I didn't ask Bob if he's submitted a paper for APL2010, but I'd keep an eye on http://www.apl2010.de/ Curtis
On Jan 24, 12:31 am, Stan Clitherdawes <d...@dickbowman.org.uk> wrote: ...
> If someone says "this is a one-off talk and isn't worth preserving" that's > their prerogative.
Stan, Thank you. Jones's own bias: Recording talks can make them less worth preserving. A camera and microphone can have an inhibiting effect on a speaker. It may not be obvious. An informal, face-to-face conversation has a different quality than something that might be investigated 30 years later.
In the case of this talk, Bob Bernecky happened to be visiting the area and agreed to talk to the APL BUG. He was talking about a work in progress, maybe practicing for his defense, maybe getting an idea of interest in elements of his work, and maybe even getting advice from the people who came with real experience in writing compilers and interpreters. There was also a significant element of IPSA reunion. (I deliberately used "IPSA", a form that might not be familiar to some readers here. A talk may be for a specific audience.)
Speakers do "create whatever materials they think the subject matter deserves." They're often papers for publication. I'm sure Bob is working on a thesis. Curtis
> On Jan 26, 8:45 am, "Kerry Liles" > <kerry.removethisandoneperiod.li...@gmail.com> wrote: >> .. >> I would like to have both the .mp3 and a transcript. >> If a transcript is not available, I would still like to have the .mp3
> The MP3 recorder quit early in the talk, so we don't have an MP3. I'm > sorry.
> Since this is part of Bob's Ph.D. research there will certainly be > real papers. I didn't ask Bob if he's submitted a paper for APL2010, > but I'd keep an eye on > http://www.apl2010.de/ > Curtis
Thank you Curtis! I will indeed have a look... PS: I understood IPSA (being ex-IPSA made that rather easy of course). I look forward to anything Bob does (as always).
The APL Bay Area Users' Group (The Northern California SIGAPL of the ACM) will meet on the 1st of April to hear Paul Jackson tell about a set of classes he's developed to provide APL functionality for the .NET programmer.
Thursday, 1 April 2010 6 p.m. - Bring takeout supper and network. 7 p.m. - Paul Jackson speaks.
The free APL I've been using is over twenty years old. In addition to being a DOS program, it has severe limitations on the size of variables and reading modern files would mean mapping UTF-8 and Unicode. Years of using other development environments has demonstrated that they have moved well beyond what was available in the early years of APL's success.
I've worked with VB.Net since it arrived, and I felt it had the tools necessary to develop a compiled APL. This is not an effort to compete with those who've learned the internals of the .Net CLR and built a traditional interpreter. Instead, I've produced a set of .Net classes which provide APL functionality for the .Net programmer. It will be provided in a way which makes writing your own functions and operators relatively easy.
Briefly, one must declare variables as APL, but nothing more. Dim myA As APL myA = _Index(10)(_a.Plus, _Of(100)) myA = _Of(2, 5)(_a.Reshape, myA) myA = _Of("ABCD") myA = myA(_c.IndexOf, _Of("AX")) If you step through this one line at a time, you will find the APL value contains exactly what you would expect as an APL programmer.
Biography:
I learned APL in 1969 while working at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. I taught it there and at Dallas County Community College District for the first twelve years of my career. I then joined I.P. Sharp Associates, where I developed several of their shared variable processors and the character left argument for thorn. I eventually lead the APL development group, before leaving in 1993.
For the last decade, I've been leading the development group at Dialog. Dialog is a company which generalized and formalized search engine expressions, much like APL did for logical expressions. I retired last September, and am enjoying the ability to work on what interests me.
This is a reminder that Paul Jackson will talk to the APL BUG (The Northern California SIGAPL of the ACM) on Thursday, 1 April. Details are in the previous post. Curtis Jones
