APL language FAQ

[sam sirlin]

Archive-name: apl-faq
Posting-Frequency: monthly
Last-modified: Sat Sep 23 14:50:05 PDT 2017




APL Frequently Asked Questions (well some, anyway)
Maintained by S.W. Sirlin
Thanks to the many people who have contributed to this list.

9/23/2017 Q'Nial update.


First, what is APL?
APL is the first array processing language (that I know of anyway).
The following was extracted from http://www.acm.org/sigapl/whyapl.htm
[10/2015 gone].

The language was invented by Kenneth E. Iverson while at Harvard
University. The language, originally titled "Iverson Notation", was
designed to overcome the inherent ambiguities and points of confusion
found when dealing with standard mathematical notation. It was later
described in 1962 in a book simply titled "A Programming Language"
(hence APL). Towards the end of the sixties, largely through the
efforts of IBM, the computer community gained its first exposure to
APL. Iverson received the Turing Award in 1979 for this work.

APL is a user-oriented notation, particularly well suited for
communication from people to other people or to computers. The
notation consists of a set of symbols (letters, numbers, punctuation,
algebra, and special shapes), with a very simple set of rules (syntax)
for putting them together to describe the processing of data. The
data can be either numeric or literal (which includes words and text
handling).

In fact there are about a hundred different "primitive"
(i.e. fundamental to APL) operations which can be performed. This can
be compared to having a calculator with over 100 different function
keys.

Following the old Chinese proverb that a picture is worth a thousand
words, the APL symbol set is the equivalent of many words in
describing algorithms or procedures. Often one or a few APL symbols
(function) can have the same result as several lines of code in
another computer language or of several paragraphs in English.

Check out some of the web links or
books listed below for more information.
Wikipedia has a good overview as well
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APL_(programming_language).



The questions I'm answering here are:
1. Where can I find APL for machine X?
2. How do I use APL on an XX terminal connected to machine YY?
3. What about APL keyboards/stickers?
4. Can I compile APL?
5. What tools exist for APL?
6. Can I get an APL font for X?
7. What information exists online about APL?
8. How do I get book Y?
9. What good APL books exist?
10. What user groups exist?
11. What's the latest APL conference?
12. How do I pass APL functions from one APL to another?
13. How do I write APL using only ASCII?
14. What about Unicode?

The primary format for this faq is html. I use lex and aplc to convert
this to a text version that is autoposted to the newsgroup.
For the (text) latest version available, see ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/
(where all the autoposted faq's are archived), in particular
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet-by-group/comp.lang.apl/APL_language_FAQ.
Another good place for faq archives is http://www.faqs.org/faqs/,
with this faq at http://www.faqs.org/faqs/apl-faq/.
The latest html version of this faq is at
http://home.earthlink.net/~swsirlin/apl.faq.html



(1) Q: Where can I find APL for machine X?
A: APL SOURCES

A+ [1/2002]
A+ (aplus) is an APL dialect available (as source) under the GNU GPL for
various Unix, including Linux, Solaris, FreeBSD, NetBSD,
developed at Morgan Stanley by Arthur Whitney et al.
http://www.aplusdev.org
http://sourceforge.net/projects/aplus/
http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/AplInDebian
A wiki describing using A+ under Debian, in emacs to get the fonts.
The BAA has had some success in porting to Windows, see
http://www.vector.org.uk

APL\11
APL\11 is a freely available APL interpreter for UNIX (C),
thanks to Michael Cain. Currently has some bugs.
See also openAPL below. Port to FreeBSD available
(email: swsi...@earthlink.net)
email: mc...@advtech.uswest.com.

APL92
APL92 (Mac, system 7.1), older APL90:
ftp://ftp.emse.fr/pub/lang/apl/[dead 12/2005]
Jean-Jacques Girardot
School Mines
St-Etienne, France
email: gira...@cambur.emse.fr

APLette [6/16/2010]
APLette is a java program written by L. Paris that
implements much of the language
See http://lparis45.free.fr/apl.html

APL2000, APL+Win (formerly STSC)[7/2016]
APL+Win (for Windows 2000 and newer), APL+WebServices,
APLNext Supervisor, APLNext Database Interface Tools

APLNow LLC d.b.a. APL2000
One Research Ct., Suite 325
Rockille, MD USA 20850
Main Tel: (301) 208-7150
Sales Tel: (301) 208-7150, Sales Fax: (301) 208-7151
Support Tel: (301) 208-7217, Support Fax: (301) 208-7151
Consulting Services Tel: (301) 208-7150
email: sa...@apl2000.com
sup...@apl2000.com
con...@apl2000.com
http://www.APL2000.com
Canadian Distributor:
APL Borealis Inc.
P.O. Box 183
Lindsay, Ontario Canada K9V 4S1
Tel: 1-705-328-1681
email: in...@aplborealis.com
http://www.aplborealis.com
International Dealers:
http://www.apl2000.com/intldealers.php

APLX (was APL.68000)[8/2016]
APLX is no longer available from MicroAPL, however Dyalog is
hosting free downloads of the final (version 5.0) APLX
installation packages and documentation
WWW: http://www.dyalog.com/aplx.htm

APLSE
APLSE/LRNAPLSE (APL*PLUS v10 freeware, PCDOS, W95/98, NT, runs
under DOSBox, Android):

APLSE is a version of Manugistics/STSC's PC APL, available
with very little documentation. It can be found at
http://plj.myfreesites.net/APLse
http://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/misc/languages/apl/apl-plus/
http://www.math.uwaterloo.ca/apl_archives/apl/apl-plus/index.html
http://www.dosbox.com/DOSBox, a DOS emulator for Windows, Linux, and FreeBSD
It is available for Android by GEMESYS at
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.gemesys.android.aplse
LRNAPLSE is a package
including APLSE, on-screen lessons (with additional
documentation), and the APL*PLUS Demo (more documentation).
Ask for a catalog of APL books and software from Dick Holt,
dick...@email.com

Fonts under W95, WNT, (WME?) are troublesome. Here is some
information from Allan Zenth (allan...@tryg.dk):
I tried to use APL-PLUS v.10 (essentially the same as APL SE)
under Windows
95 and Windows NT. I don't know about Windows ME.
First the bad things: You cannot work in a window with symbols
(only
full-screen) and using a code-page for symbols is not possible
in NT.
The difficult thing is to have a stable full-screen situation
and the most
difficult was NT.
1) Make a short-cut on the screen to the apl.exe file. Go into the
properties (right-click on the icon).
2) On the program-page refer to the bat-file in the
command-line field an
set run to maximized
3) On the memory-page I use 1MB in EMS, XMS & DPMI - perhabs
not important
4) On the screen-page set full-screen
5) On the misc-page remove the check-mark for Ctrl+Esc -
Important to have
in APL
6) Go into C:\WinNT\Pif and make sure, that you have the same
short-cut
here
7) Here should also be a short-cut for your font.com:
7a) On the program page refer to the file itself on the
command-line, set
run to maximized and remove the mark in "close on exit"
(important!!)
7b) The same alterations on the other pages as above.
8) If you use aplprint.com for function-printout it should be
treated as
font.com
Try to use this method in Windows ME - it might be the way out.

APL*PLUS II/VMS, Statgraphics
This was distributed by Manugistics (formerly STSC) but now has
been taken over by APL2000 (above).
Manugistics
2115 East Jefferson St.
Rockville, Maryland, USA 20852
Tel: 800-592-0050, 301-984-5000, 301-984-5412, 301-984-5123
Fax: 301-984-5094
email: support: ans...@manu.com
international: in...@manu.com
BBS: 301-984-5222

APROL
APROL (Scheme/J mix):
For information (7/15/98):
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~jhowland/aprol.paper.ps
email: jhow...@ariel.cs.trinity.edu

CAPLIB2
CAPLIB2 (Linux, DOS, HPUX, can be ported to other Unix) GPL
interpreter, C library
Thomas Glen Smith
3154 W. Shady Lane
Neenah, WI
email: 76207...@CompuServe.com

http://www.math.uwaterloo.ca/apl_archives/apl/CAP/index.html
This used to serve the code and still has some information,
but the links don't seem to work anymore. The manual and BeOS
port are available below. I have the Unix packages. [12/2015]
http://www.apl2.de/ Possible future development
https://web.archive.org/web/20130207235225/http://double.co.nz/beos/apl.htm
The BeOS port.
http://files.mpoli.fi/software/PROGRAMM/GENERAL/CAP_MAN.PSManual

D4 [8/2000]
D4 (IBM PC, Windows, Linux). Unix like shell for windows
The shell is writen in D4, a dialect of APL
http://www.d4maths.lowtech.org
For more information contact the author Tony Goddard
email:c...@animal.u-net.com

DEC [4/2014]
APL-11 (PDP), VAX APL V4.0:
Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) was bought by Compaq in
1998, which was bought by HP in 2002. The APL products seem to
be no longer available. Note that some code is
available from http://www.trailing-edge.com
including binaries for APLSF, and the source code for APL-11.


Dyalog APL [8/2016]
Dyalog APL (Windows Vista onwards, AIX, Linux, Mac OS X,
Raspberry Pi). Available free for educational use.
Source:
Dyalog Ltd.
Minchens Court, Minchens Lane, Bramley
Hampshire RG26 5BH, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 1256 830 030
http://www.dyalog.com
Email : sa...@dyalog.com
Resellers: http://www.dyalog.com/resellers.htm

FreeAPL
IBM PC, MS Windows, version of APL\11
Tauno Ylinen, email:
tyl...@mits.mdata.fi

Glee
Glee is an APL descendent, for MS Windows
http://withglee.com/

GNU APL
GNU APL is a free interpreter APL. Should compile under most
unix, windows under CYGWIN. A Linux RPM and Debian package are
available.
The APL interpreter is an (almost) complete implementation of
ISO standard 13751 aka. Programming Language APL, Extended.
The APL interpreter has implemented:

o nested arrays and related functions
o complex numbers, and
o a shared variable interface

In addition, GNU APL can be scripted.
GNU APL was written and is being maintained by Jurgen Sauermann.
http://www.gnu.org/software/apl/
http://www.gnu.org/software/apl/Community.html

I-APL
IBM PC, Mac, some other PCs, runs under DOSBox (free*):
https://sites.google.com/site/baavector/interpreters APL
interpreters, including I-APL

In the US (may require lots of patience):
Edward M. Cherlin
Co-Chairman, I-APL Limited
6611 Linville Drive
Weed, California, USA 96094-9763
Tel: (916) 938-4684, Fax: 916/938-3229
email: Che...@snowcrest.net


In the UK:
Anthony Camacho
Co-Chairman, I-APL Limited
11 Auburn Road
Redland
Bristol BS6 6LS UK

IBM APL2 [11/09]
APL2 for Windows, AIX, Linux, Solaris and Mainframes
APL Products and Services
IBM Silicon Valley Lab, Dept. H36/F40
555 Bailey Avenue
San Jose, California 95141, USA
Tel: 408-463-APL2 (408-463-2752), FAX: 408-463-4488
email: ap...@vnet.ibm.com
web page:http://www.ibm.com
forum:https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/forums/forum.jspa?forumID=2104
documentation:http://www-306.ibm.com/software/awdtools/apl/library.html
ftp site:ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com
IBM support site. Look in /ps/products/apl2
Products:
From 1-800-IBM-CALL or ibm.com
Workstation APL2 Version 2 (Windows, AIX, Linux, Solaris) is
IBM Program Product Number 5724-B74
APL2 Version 2 (CMS, TSO) is Program Number 5688-228
APL2 Application Environment for CMS/TSO is Program Number
5688-229

INCA
INCA [4/2014],
A tiny APL-style array calculator/interpreter in C based on the
J-incunabulum
https://github.com/luser-dr00g/inca

J
J (for Linux, Mac, Windows, WindowsCE) [7/2008],
Produced by:
Jsoftware Inc.
http://www.jsoftware.com
email: in...@jsoftware.com
An early version of J (J7, about 1994) is available on
waterloo. Early inspiration came from an interpreter fragment
from Arthur Whitney
http://www.jsoftware.com/jwiki/Essays/Incunabulum

K
K, Kdb; an APL derivative for Solaris, Linux, Windows
Kx Systems
http://kx.com

MacAPL
Macs (?) version 2.11 (I don't know much about this yet)
Michael C. O'Connor
Leptonic Systems Co.
405 Tarrytown Rd., White Plains, NY 10607
Tel: (914) 682-0377
version 1.13
ftp://ftp.uwtc.washington.edu/pub/Mac/Programming/Languages/
[10/2015 dead]
(no longer: ftp://ftp.ens.fr/pub/mac/hqx/ )

MVT for APL [12/2015]
MVT for APL Version 2.00 is a resurrection of APL\360, an old
IBM APL together with OS/360 needed to run it. Apparently runs on
Windows, OSX, or Linux. This is possible since IBM have licensed
the source code of APL\360-OS Version 1, Modification 1 to the
Computer History Museum. See the extensive instructions in the
manual.
http://wotho.ethz.ch/mvt4apl-2.00/
Put together by Jürgen Winkelmann
email: winke...@id.ethz.ch

NARS2000 [7/2009]
NARS2000 is a freely available open source APL interpreter for
Windows 2000 and later versions as well as various versions of
Linux using Wine (http://www.winehq.org/) as a translation
layer. NARS2000 is an Experimental APL Interpreter being worked
on by members of the APL community. Available in 32 bit and 64 bit
versions.

http://www.nars2000.org
email:sitem...@nars2000.org
wiki:http://wiki.nars2000.org
Forums: http://forums.nars2000.org

ngn APL [7/2014]
An APL implemented in CoffeeScript. Runs on NodeJS or in a
browser. In development.
https://github.com/ngn/apl
Demo: http://ngn.github.io/apl/web/

openAPL
New (11/98) version of apl\11 (above). Alpha release, under
GPL (free source). Ported to Linux/X11
ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/devel/lang/apl
Branko Bratkovic, South Australia.
email to branko at senet dot com dot au
Now (7/2005) in development at sourceforge by Peter Jeremy (mangled
mail address: pzextcev...@zxcvb.optushome.com.au):
http://sourceforge.net/projects/openapl/

Parrot APL [11/2006]
APL is one of the languages part of the parrot project - a
generic interpreter backend with more than 30 languages included (Perl,
Ruby Basic, Scheme etc). GPL (free source). Unix +.
http://www.parrotcode.org/

Q'Nial [9/23/2017]
Q'Nial is a highly portable interpreter for Nial originally
developed at Queen's University, Kingston, Canada in the early
1980s. NIAL stands for the Nested Interactive Array Language,
a hybrid language combining a functional array language based on
Trenchard More's mathematical treatment of nested arrays
called Array Theory, with a procedural language with familiar
control structures. Q'Nial is open source, with versions available
for Unix and Windows.
NIAL Systems Limited
601-2 Bay St.
Kingston, Ontario
K7K 6T7
email: nia...@gmail.com
Source and binary versions are available on github:
http://www.github.com/danlm/QNial7.
The version 7 release provides documentation on Q'Nial and tools
to extend the language by incorporating other open software packages.

SHARP APL
SHARP APL (MVS, AIX, SunOS, Solaris, Linux, Android [4/15])
Sharp APL for Linux is free for personal use. sAPL for
Android devices by GEMESYS Ltd. is available from
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.gemesys.android.sapl
Other products are Viewpoint, LOGOS, Mailbox
Soliton Associates Limited (Formerly I. P. Sharp Associates)
44 Victoria St, Suite 2100
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5C 1Y2
Tel: (416) 364-9355 Fax: (416) 364-6159
email: sa...@Soliton.COM
http://www.soliton.com
Soliton Associates, Inc.
1100 University Ave., Suite 111
Rochester, NY 14607
USA
Tel: (716) 256-6466, Fax: (716) 256-6469
Soliton Associates Limited
Havsgaardsvej 4
2900 Hellerup
Copenhagen, Denmark
Tel: +45 2621 6099, Fax: +45 3940 1641
email: benoit...@soliton.com

WatAPL
Watcom [4/2014]
Watcom developed a variety of languages including APL in the
early 1980s. Some are now becomming open source at OpenWatcom.
Watcom APL by GEMESYS Ltd. is a free, full featured APL for
Android. See the google play store or
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.gemesys.android.watapl




(2) Q: How do I use APL on an XX terminal connected to machine YY?
A: Terminal Emulation

Apex Computer Specialists
APL Key Boards and key caps for MG800/T7000 terminals, for WICAT/MCS
systems, as well as terminal with both the ASCII and APL character
codes.
Bert Arias
Apex Computer Specialists, Inc.
1502 West 400 South, Suite #2
Orem, UT 84058-5100
Tel: 888-887-2739, Ext. 3357
Int.l 1-801-223-3357
Fax: 801-223-9955
e-mail: bar...@apexcs.com

Chameleon
Chameleon TN3270 for Windows, networks, IBM 3179G and 3192G emulation,
SAA, APA graphics.
NetManage
10725 De Anza Blvd., Cupertino, CA 95014, U.S.A.
Tel: 408/973-7171
Fax: 408/257-6405
email: Do...@NetManage.com

EXTRA!
EXTRA! Extended for DOS or EXTRA! for Windows.
Includes APL2 character set in both. DOS product works
under Windows.
Attachmate Corporation
13231 S.E. 36th Street
Bellevue, Washington 98006 USA
tel. (800) 426-6283
(206) 644-4010 in Washington State

IBM Terminal Emulator
IBM Terminal Emulators with APL Support:
AIX: AIX X-Windows 3270 Emulator/6000 (X3270) Program
Number 5765-011
DOS/Windows: PC/3270 Version 3, Version 4 9/30
OS2 Extended Services Communications Manager:
Includes the CMAPL Application Aid. Requires APAR fixes
after the Graphics Engine CSD is installed.
OS2 Communications Manager/2 (CM/2):
APL Support is available in Version 1.11

IRMA
IRMA (PC) ??
Digital Communications Associates, Inc.
1000 Alderman Drive
Alpharetta, Georgia 30201-4199 USA
tel. (770) 442-4000

PuTTY
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/
A free implementation of Telnet and SSH for Windows and Unix
platforms. Can be used as an APL terminal emulator when used in
conjunction with the APL385 font and the Dyalog UnicodeIME
(available from http://www.dyalog.com/apl-font-keyboard.htm).

RUMBA
RUMBA (for 3270, APL and graphics)
Wall Data
17769 NE 78th Place
Redmond WA 98052-4992
206-883-4777
Apparently available here:https://www.attachmate.com/products/rumba+/.

rxvt
OpenAPL has support for X11 terminals, but this may not match
character orderings for other APLs.

Sun
Sun reportedly has a very good emulator (dtterm) for SunOS 4 and
Solaris 2
which emulates an IBM 3179G APA colour graphics terminal. Part of
CDE, so probably obsolete.

TN3270 [2/2010]
TN3270 (Macintosh) Not public domain, but may be freely distributed.
Works with TCP/IP
See the homepage at Brown http://www.brown.edu/cis/tn3270/

May also be here? ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/

BITNET distribution from LISTSERV@BROWNVM:
Send LISTSERV the command GET TN3270 PACKAGE. GET LOCAL
FILELIST
for a complete list of available files.

x3270 [2/2010]
x3270 for Unix systems (Linux, Solaris,...)
A free 327x emulator with APL support. Get the
source from http://x3270.bgp.nu/download.html,
or see the home page at http://x3270.bgp.nu/.
An older version is here ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/applications.

YTERM
YTERM For PC, supports IBM, VAX, TCP/IP with APL/APL2 chars. [?]
Yale University Computing & Information Systems
Software Distribution
175 Whitney Avenue
New Haven CT 06520
Tel: (203) 432-6600 Fax: (203)-432-6165
LISTSERV@YALEVM
http://www.uic.edu/depts/adn/infwww/txt/v3113001.txt

Z-Stem [?]
Z-Stem, a series of VT (e.g. VT240) emulators, for MSDOS PC/VAX-11
KEA Systems
3738 North Fraser Way, Unit 101
Burnaby, British Columbia
Canada, V5J 5G1
(604) 431-0727




(3) Q: What about APL keyboards/stickers?
A: APL Keyboards/Keycaps

APL keyboard
IBM/Lexmark keyboard, part no. 60G3571 or KB-571,
(Professional 101-key keyboard about $90)
APL2 Keycaps, US and UK base set (about $46)SX80-0270
APL2 Keycaps, German Upgrade to SX80-0270 SX80-0452
APL2 Keycaps, German Upgrade to SX80-0270 SX80-0453
APL2 Keycaps, French Upgrade to SX80-0270 SX80-0454
APL2 Keycaps, Italian Upgrade to SX80-0270 SC33-0604
APL2 Keyboard Decals (about $13 for set of two)
Keycaps and decals are "publications" - order at 800-879-2755

Dyalog keyboard
US, UK and Danish available. Other languages would be considered
if the demand was great enough. Contact Dyalog for more
information.

Keyboard stickers, custom replacement key caps
Hooleon Corp.
P.O. Box 230
Cornville, AZ 86325
Tel: (602) 634-7515
Fax: (602) 634-4620

Keyboard stickers
APL2000 Inc. (see above address)

On-screen Maps
KEYBOARD.AWS: APL*PLUS pop-up color keyboard diagram
at the touch of a PF key. Incorporate it in any .AWS.
Ask for catalog from email:dick...@email.com




(4) Q: Can I compile APL?
A: Compilers

APL2C
APL2C compiler/translator and interpreter,
for Microsoft Windows 9x/NT/2000, written by Dr. Tilman P. Otto
http://www.apl2c.com
email: ot...@apl2c.com

APL to C
APL to C conversion and compiler
- I've heard this is out of business these days.
Sofremi-AGL
6. rue Paul Bert
92800 Puteaux - France
(1) 47.72.25.13 + Telex: 612 651 F

IBM 370 APL*PLUS
Manugistics compiler for IBM 370 APL*PLUS, documented in APL '85.
see Manugistics listing above, or
email apls...@manu.com.


Experimental:

APEX
Robert Bernecky's APEX compiler:
Snake Island Research Inc.
http://www.snakeisland.com/[9/2003]
email:bern...@acm.org

APLc
Tim Budd's APLc:
anonymous login to ftp.cs.orst.edu, cd users/b/budd, or
http://web.engr.oregonstate.edu/~budd/ and look under books.
(latest C++ version unavailable?)

Sam Sirlin's current modification of Budd's older aplc
o ported to Solaris, Freebsd, Atari, Linux, Dec Alpha
o support for most of ISO APL, control structures, boxed
arrays
o support for hypercomplex numbers (ordinary complex,
quaternions, octonions)
v5.12 is stable version (mostly flat APL)
v6.18 is the development version (anonymous fns, more operator
support)
See http://home.earthlink.net/~swsirlin/apl.html
or send mail to swsi...@earthlink.net asking for it

CAPLIB
Thomas Glen Smith's CAPLIB2 package, while not strictly a compiler
Has C procedures corresponding to APL functions/operators (see
above)

Co-dfns [9/4/2016]
The Co-dfns project aims to provide a high-performance,
high-reliability compiler for a parallel extension of the Dyalog
dfns programming language.
http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2627384, Co-dfns: Ancient
Language, Modern Compiler
http://arcfide.github.io/Co-dfns/

PLJsAPL
Paul Jackson's Free APL compiler, written in .net, is available
from http://plj.myfreesites.net/PLJsAPL

A list of references on APL compilation is available
ftp://archive.uwaterloo.ca/languages/apl/bibliography/compilers.html[dead
3/2006]




(5) Q: What tools exist for APL?
A: Other tools for APL

Dino database for huge amount of data,Saurus tools for
multidimensional databases
Dinosoft Oy
Lonnrotinkatu 21 C
00120 HELSINKI, Finland
Tel: +358 9 70028820, Fax: +358 9 70028824
email: dino...@dinosoft.fi
>http://www.dinosoft.fi/[10/2015 dead]

IEDIT (APL2 editor),AFM file system,APL2 tools[dead 3/2006]
Interprocess Systems, Inc.

Insight Systems [dead 10/2015]
SQAPL, an interface to SQL databases via ODBC or
SequeLink, a spreadsheet manager, and a number of other APL tools
available for many APL systems. Dealers for Dyalog APL, APL+Win
from Cognos/APL2000, APL2 from IBM, J from Jsoftware,
Causeway Products. [SQAPL seems to be available from Dyalog now.]



Computer Aided Instruction

Computer Aided Instruction, for PC or mainframe IBM. Also a newsletter.
Zark Incorporated
23 Ketchbrook Lane
Ellington CT 06029 USA

Converting CSV files to APL

Some functions for converting Comma-Separated-Value (CSV)
files (e.g. from spreadsheets such as excell) to APL
http://aplwiki.com/CsvToApl


(6) Q: Can I get an APL font for X?
A: Besides commercial products that come with the interpreters, there are:

o Fonts for TeX, laTeX, the X windows system, postscript, and
truetype (windows) are available. See
http://www.math.uwaterloo.ca/apl_archives/apl/fonts[4/2009]

o Truetype fonts for windows are available from ISI.

o Dyalog fonts are Adrian Smith's APL385 (and APL333) fonts, free
download at http://www.dyalog.com/apl-font-keyboard.htm

o Truetype fonts: Dyalog APL and Vector APL are available gratis, if
you send a blank, formatted disk:
Adrian Smith
Brook House, Gilling East, YORK
England -- U.K.
(See his article in the April 1993 issue of VECTOR journal)

o STSC, now Manugistics, used to distribute a rom chip with the APL
characters for use in old monochrome adapters (now almost
extinct). There's also code called SIMCGA.COM, that makes an old
Hercules act like a cga (itself pretty old).

o Fonts from several vendors are available for use (free of charge)
in preparing articles for APL Quote Quad, APL conference
proceedings, or other educational articles. This can be found on
the ACM SIGAPL Web site. Word processing Templates to aid the
author in preparing articles for conference proceedings or for
submission to APL Quote Quad can also be found on the ACM SIGAPL
web site.

o Paul Houle has made a DOS window font file suitable for use with
old STSC APL's available here [5/17/04]:
http://paulhoule.com

o Paul L Jackson's pljtools.zip contains DOSAPP.FON which if put in
the Windows\Font directory, will provide an 8x16 APL font for a DOS
window. This should work for various MS Windows products and
APLSE. This is available at waterloo
http://www.math.uwaterloo.ca/apl_archives/apl/apl-plus/index.html
and (with APLSE) [5/05]:
http://plj.myfreesites.net/APLse

o A variety of fonts and tools is available from Vector:
https://sites.google.com/site/baavector/fonts

o Emacs can display APL fonts, see
http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/AplInDebian

o Unicode fonts such as https://www.gnu.org/software/freefont/ can
display APL glyphs



(7) Q: What information exists online about APL?
A:

Online information, free* APLs & WS

o Anonymous ftp servers:

o ftp://rtfm.mit.edu The official archive site for this faq and
many others. The latest version of this faq is at
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet-by-group/comp.lang.apl/APL_language_FAQ


o ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com, IBM support site. Look in
ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/ps/products/apl2.
ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/ps/products/apl2/demos contains a
free (time limited) demo of APL2 for Windows, and TryAPL.

o Web Sites:

o ACM SIGAPL - information about the ACM, SIGAPL, related
organizations, conferences, Internet resources, and the APL
White Pages. [10/2015 no longer available]

o AFAPL - French APL users group.
http://www.afapl.asso.fr

o APL Quotations and Anecdotes.
http://www.jsoftware.com/papers/APLQA.htm

o APLSmith - a variety of tools from all major APL
vendors. Web server written in APL.
http://aplsmith.com

o APL White Pages
A collection of names and email adressess of those
interested in APL. Over 300 listings.
To be listed, or see a listing go to
http://www.acm.org/sigapl

o A Programming Language (APL/J/K, The Movie), the movie
blog http://www.aprogramminglanguage.com/

o Bob Armstrong's CoSy page - APL/K notecomputing environment
(10/2001)
http://cosy.com/K/CoSy.htm, or
http://cosy.com/language/

o APL2000 Inc. Home Page
http://www.APL2000.com

o APL Team Ltd - German distributor of Dyalog APL
http://aplteam.de and
http://aplteam.com
They have a general wiki on APL at
http://aplwiki.com/

o The Brighton University Resource Kit for Students, produced by
John English (with various APL resources)
http://burks.bton.ac.uk [dead 10/2015]

o Bernard Houben's site, Inverted Data Analyser, Dyalog APL
http://home.wanadoo.nl/houb/IDA.htm [10/2015 dead]

o Dyalog Ltd. Home Page [9/2012]:
http://www.dyalog.com

o Eke van Batenburg's APL webpage:
http://www.ekevanbatenburg.nl/PRVAPL.HTML

o FinnAPL, Tauno Ylinen's FREEAPL for Windows, a couple of
Dyalog workspaces, and APL idioms list
http://www.finnapl.fi

o Free APL Compilers and Interpreters (page title, actually
only interpreters are listed). Currently [3/2010] includes
links to J,
APLSE, A+, OpenAPL, FreeAPL, APLX, APL!.
http://www.thefreecountry.com/compilers/apl.shtml

o Conrad Hoesle-Kienzlen's web page [dead 6/2009],
CHK IT-Consulting http://www.hoesle-kienzlen.de

o Google groups: J discussions
http://groups.google.com/group/J-Programming

o The IBM 1130 - including a simulator for this HW on a
modern machine, and APL\1130. http://ibm1130.org/
o J and APL Web Ring
Web-ring moderated by Alex Kornilovski:
http://webhome.idirect.com/~kornal/ring/index.html

o J Home Page
http://www.jsoftware.com

o J. E. Howland's Home page; APL/J references
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~jhowland/

o K. Smillie's Home page; Various information for J, Beginning
J, J and statistics
http://www.cs.ualberta.ca/~smillie/

o MicroAPL Limited
http://www.microapl.co.uk

o Milinta - Software and education for a variety of
APL's. Help with workspace/file transfer between some APLs.
(Dyalog, APL+family, SHARP MF, SAX)
http://www.milinta.com

o Mozilla Open Directory project
http://www.dmoz.org/Computers/Programming/Languages/APL/

o Openhere Network - Web search engine written in APL
http://openhere.com/ [10/2015 dead]

o Porting Mind.forth to APL
http://mind.sourceforge.net/apl.html

o Q'Nial - a similar array language
http://www.nial.com/

o Rex Swain's APL Information
http://www.rexswain.com/aplinfo.html

o Rubick's Cube in APL
http://www.nyx.net/~anon84c2/

o Remembering APL - a short introduction. Some good
information on glyphs used by some dialects.
http://www.quadibloc.com/comp/aplint.htm

o Soliton's web page
http://www.soliton.com (Main Page)

o Toronto APL SIG - Activities of Toronto members.
http://www.torontoapl.ca[8/2007]

o TryAPL - Try APL online [9/2012]
http://www.tryapl.org

o Vector/BAA web sites
http://www.vector.org.uk
(maintained by Ray Cannon, now redirects below)
https://sites.google.com/site/baavector/
https://sites.google.com/site/baavector/interpreters good list
of interpreters


o The Waterloo Archives.
The University of Waterloo, Canada. L.J. Dickey's collection.
Lots of J/APL archives.
http://www.math.uwaterloo.ca/apl_archives/Welcome.html[back up
3/2006]
Some APL draft standards are kept here, for example the
Committee Draft 1 of the APL ANSI/ISO standard
http://www.math.uwaterloo.ca/apl_archives/apl/standards/cd1/

o Jim Weigang's Home Page - Newsreader etc.
http://www.chilton.com/~jimw/

o Wiki -- websites that allows visitors to add, remove, and edit content


o General APL Wiki from the German distributor of Dyalog APL
http://aplwiki.com/
o J Wiki http://www.jsoftware.com/jwiki
o Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APL_(programming_language).

o Mail servers

list...@listserv.unb.ca (list...@unb.ca), in the list APL-L,
archives of comp.lang.apl
ftp...@decwrl.dec.com - mail access to waterloo, gatekeeper

o Mail servers/lists
BIT...@PUCC.BITNET - access to waterloo?

Access to the APL-L on bitnet from the internet can be done via
mail:

To: list...@unb.ca
Subject: SUBSCRIBE APL-L
SUBSCRIBE APL-L

DyalogAPL t-c...@u-aizu.ac.jp
for Dyalog users
APL-ERS APL...@IRLEARN.BITNET
UCD APL Interest Group "virtually extinct"
APL-L AP...@UNB.CA,
AP...@UNBVM1.BITNET (broken?)
APL Language Discussion (mirror of comp.lang.apl)
APLEDU-L...@UNBVM1.BITNET
APL in Education
A+http://www.aplusdev.org/Lists/index.html
A+ mail list, archive
J Forumhttp://www.jsoftware.com
J mail list, archive

o Inquiries about the ISO APL standards should be addressed to
your national standards body, or to any delagete from your
country. If you can not find out who that is, you may ask
Lee Dickey at ljdi...@math.uwaterloo.ca (SC22 WG3 attendees)

o SIGAPL Software Library

New Name, New Addresses:

SIGAPL has made major changes in its software distribution system.
The SIGAPL Software Library replaces what was formerly known as
the "Software Exchange." SIGAPL wants to make array processing
software much more widely available and easy to get. We want it
to be decoupled from annual APL conferences, available year-round,
unbundled by interpreter, and electronically free. Thanks to Lee
Dickey at the University of Waterloo, this software is now
available at:

o http://www.math.uwaterloo.ca/apl_archives/apl/Welcome.html

APL96 Conference Software Highlights:

MERLIN Two new AWS mind bogglers (Langlet, FR)
GRAN AWS []G Graphics (Buzin, RU)
NFILES W3 Long file names, National Characters (Glantz, SE)
APL2OS2TAPL2/2 Tutorial for OS/2 (Jizba, US)
APLSE Free APL*PLUS v10 Interpreter (Manugistics/APL2000)
LRNAPLSEAPLSE Tutorial & Documentation (Holt, US)
UNLOCK-DUnlock locked fns in any small AWS (Holt, US)
SL-GuideHow to add to the SIGAPL Software Library

SIGAPL Software Guidelines:

The SIGAPL Software Library (SL) is the premier venue for APL,
J, and other array-oriented authors to display their programming
ideas and skills, and for vendors to showcase their demos and
products. APL and J software authors and vendors are invited
to send their material on a 3.5 ″ DOS disk to:

Lee Dickey, Mathematics Department
University of Waterloo
Waterloo Ontario
Canada 2NL 3G1

Tell him that it's for the Software Library. You may send your
software at *any* time of the year. FTP upload is available
on demand. Write to Lee Dickey at ljdi...@math.uwaterloo.ca

SIGAPL's updated Software Library guidelines are:

o Include an ASCII file (call it WSNAME.TXT) to describe what
the software does, and what hardware and software is needed
to use it. English is preferred, and other languages are
welcome.

o Think electronically. Your software needs to be packaged
as a stand-alone product for electronic distribution.
Good documen- tation adds real value to your software.

o Put all of your material in one single .ZIP file for easy
FTPing.

o Include any needed copyright permissions. Copyrighted
software can't be distributed without permission.

o If possible, provide APL software in both its original
form and as an APLACSCII file. APLASCII software (v1.4)
is available for all major APLs at the electronic sources
listed above.

o Check your software for viruses. Archive.waterloo.ca will
also check your software for viruses.

o Authors should pay special attention to the quality, usefulness,
and documentation of their work, and should include their name
and address (including email).

o Significant improvements and major updates of prior SL
software are welcome.


(8) Q: How do I get book Y?
A: Sources of Publications/Books

o APL Book Sales [1/2002; seems to be out of service 2/2004?]
operated by Robert G. Brown
On-Line at
http://apl-books.com, or
APL Book Sales
6749 South Westnedge Avenue
Suite K-288
Portage, Michigan
USA 49002
email: b...@acm.org
FAX: (616) 324-9070

o APL Quote Quad
Association for Computing Machinery
[10/2015 no longer published]

o BestWebBuys is a commercial site with a list of programming books
and specifically APL books available [11/2006]:
http://www.bestwebbuys.com/Programming_Languages-General-books.html
bestwebbuys programming languages link
http://www.bestwebbuys.com/Programming_Languages-General-N_10006038-books.html
bestwebbuys APL link

o Dick Holt
An email catalog of software for APL*PLUS, APL Special Edition
Freeware, on-screen APL lessons and docs, plus many APL books is
available upon request from Dick Holt,
email:dick...@email.com

o EducAPL
1120 Ave du Parc
Quebec PQ
CANADA G1S2W7

o Renaissance Data Systems [seems dead 11/2006]
All books on APL and J in print
P.O.Box 313, Newtown, CT 06470, USA
email: aplb...@earthlink.net
http://www.aplbooks.com

o Past proceedings of the "APL as a Tool of Thought" conferences
are available from NY/SIGAPL.


(9) Q: What good APL books exist?
A: Reference Books

References - books mentioned on the net or that someone has recomended,
not all of which are available:

For another list online see:
http://www.math.uwaterloo.ca/apl_archives/apl/bibliography/index.htmlNot
fully working yet [11/2006]


o APL"nn" Conference Proceedings - The annual ACM/SigAPL conference
proceedings, published yearly from 19?? (APL??) to date (APL96)
as an issue of APL Quote Quad; replace nn by the appropriate last
two digits of the year.

o Ajay Askoolum, "System Building with APL + WIN,"
Wiley, ISBN: 0-470-03020-8, August 2006. Available at
http://www.amazon.com/System-Building-APL-WIN-RSP/dp/0470030208
and other sources.

o Brown et. al. "APL2 at a Glance," Prentice Hall, ISBN 0-13-038670-7.

o T. Budd, "An APL Compiler," Springer-Verlag.

o Maurice Dalois, "Introduction to APL*PLUS PC,"
available from EducAPL, US$30, US$10 for overseas shipping.

o J. Ever and C. Fair, "Guidelines for APL Systems,"
DPD 22 IBM 037301, March 1976.

o Gilman and Rose, "APL - An Interactive Approach," Wiley,
ISBN 220-471-30022-5.

o Ulf Grenander, "Mathematical Experiments on the Computer,"
Academic Press, 1982, ISBN 0-12-301750-5.

o Kent Haralson, Useful APL Defined Functions, IBM Technical
Report, TR 00.2409, Feb. 8 1973.

o Timothy Holls, "APL Programming Guide," IBM G320-6103, 1978, and
G320-6735, 1981, (out of print?).

o IBM, "APL2 Programming: Language Reference"
(Version 2, SH21-1061; Version 1, SH20-9227 (DOS only)).

o IBM, "The APL Handbook of Techniques", IBM publication number
S320-5996, April 1978. Includes routines for multi-precision
integer and float operations.

o The IBM System Journal, V. 30, No. 4 (1991); Special Issue
Devoted to APL.

o IBM online references:
http://www-306.ibm.com/software/awdtools/apl/library.html

o A.D. Falkoff, K.E Iverson, E.H Sussenguth, "A formal description
of System/360,"
The IBM System Journal, V. 3, No. 3 (1964)

o K. E. Iverson, A Programming Language, Wiley, 1962.

o K. E. Iverson, Algebra : an algorithmic treatment, APL Press 1977,
Copyright 1972 by Addison Wesley, Preliminary Edition entitled
"Elementary Algebra" Copyright 1971 by IBM Corporation.

o K. E. Iverson, Elementary analysis, APL press 1976, Preliminary
Edition "Elementary Functions" Copyright 1974 by IBM Corporation ISBN
0-917326-01-6

o K. E. Iverson, An introduction to APL for Scientists and Engineers,
APL Press 1976, First published by IMB Corporation as Technical Report
No 320-3019 March 1973 - ISBN 0-917326-04-0

o K. E. Iverson, APL in exposition, APL Press 1976, First published
by IBM Corporation as Technical Report No 320-3010 March 1973 - ISBN
0-917326-02-4.

o K. E. Iverson, Introduction To APL, (1984-APL Press Palo Alto) ISBN
0-917326-14-8.

o K. E. Iverson, "A personal view of APL," IBM Systems Journal,
Vol. 30, No. 4, 1991.

o K. E. Iverson, Concrete Mathematics Companion.

o S. Kamin, "Programming Languages: An Interpreter-Based
Approach," contains (among other things) toy implementations of
Lisp, APL, Scheme, SASL, CLU, Smalltalk, and Prolog,
Addison-Wesley, 1990, ISBN 0-201-06824-9.

o Bernard Legrand, "Les APL Etendus," Masson, Paris, 1994. An
introduction to modern APL (French).

o Bernard Legrand, "Mastering Dyalog APL - A Complete Introduction
to Dyalog APL," ISBN-10: 0956463800 / ISBN-13: 978-0956463807
Available for download from
http://www.dyalog.com/mastering-dyalog-apl.htm, or can be purchased
from Amazon (see link on http://www.dyalog.com/intro/).

o Jon McGrew, "An Introduction to APL2," IBM (SH20-9229).

o James A. Mason, "Learning APL: An Array Processing Language,"
Harper & Row Publishers Inc., New York, 1986, ISBN 0-06-044243-3
260 pp.

o Peelle, APL an Introduction, Holt, Rinehart & Winston,
ISBN 0-03-004953-9.

o Reiter & Jones, APL with a Mathematical Accent, Brooks/Cole
ISBN 0-534-12864-5, (now being distributed by Chapman & Hall).

o C. Reiter, Fractuals Visualization and J, Iverson Software, Inc,
1995 ISBN 1-895721-11-3.

o Adrian Smith, "APL, A Design Handbook for Commercial Systems,"
Wiley series in information processing,
Wiley & Sons, 1982, ISBN 0-471-10092-7.

o D. Stiers, M.J. Goovaerts, J. De Kerf, "APL - The Language and its
Actuarial Applications"

o Norman D. Thomson, Raymond P. Polivka, "APL2 in Depth,"
Springer-Verlag, 1995, ISBN 0-387-94213-0 ($39.95).

o Jerry R. Turner, "APL IS EASY!," Manugistics, 1993.

o "SHARP APL Reference Manual," 2nd ed., Soliton Associates Limited
PC Version: Iverson Software, 1993, ISBN 1-895721-07-5.

o Jim Weigang, "APL Notes,"
An introduction to APL that includes 16- and 32-bit APL*PLUS
interpreters. For orders and more information, see:
http://www.chilton.com/~jimw/aplnotes.html

o "A Source Book in APL," APL Press, 1981, ISBN 0-917326-10-5.

o "J Phrases," Iverson Software, 1996, ISBN 1-895721-12-1

o "Exploring Math", Iverson Software, 1996, ISBN 1-895721-13-X

o "J Primer," Iverson Software, 1996, ISBN 1-895721-14-8


(10) Q: What user groups exist?
A: User groups

Note that information on officers may be somewhat
out of date.

ACM/SIGAPL
Association for Computing Machinery / Special Interest Group on
APL, international membership.
Quarterly journal Quote Quad. Chapter groups around the country.
Association for Computing Machinery
1515 Broadway
New York, NY 10036
Tel: (212) 626-0500
email acm...@acm.org

CALL FOR PAPERS [8/30/2005]
APL QUOTE QUAD

The next issue of APL Quote Quad is being designed. Prospective authors
are encouraged to submit papers on any of the usual subjects of
interest related to Array-Processing Languages (APL, APL2, J, and so
forth). Submitted papers, in Microsoft Word (.doc), Rich Text Format
(.rtf), Openoffice format (.scw), Latex (.tex) or Acrobat (.pdf)
should be addressed to
Manuel Alfonseca
Manuel.A...@uam.es
with copy to:
Antonio Annibali
Antonio....@uniroma1.it
and Mario Sacco
mario...@acm.org

Care must be taken to make the submitted papers self-contained,
eg. if they require special APL typesettings. The tentative time limit
for the new material is September 30th, 2005.

APLBUG [10/12/2013]
APL Bay Area Users Group, Northern California ACM SIGAPL
Meets irregularly.
Chairman:Chuck Kennedy
(408)241-2920
Charles...@comcast.net
Vice Chairman:Charles Schulz
casc...@earthlink.net
Secretary/Treasurer:Curtis Jones
228 South 15th Street
San Jose, CA 95112-2150
curtis...@ieee.org

BACUS
Belgian APL CAM Users Society
APL CAM Journal (4 issues / year in French, Dutch, English) and
other publications. fee: 500 BEF
c/o Joseph De Kerf
Rooienberg 72
B2570 Duffel BELGIUM
tel.: 32-15-31 47 24

BAA (8/2016)
BAA British APL Association, a specialist group of the British
Computer Society, international membership.
Quarterly journal VECTOR maintains a comprehensive vendor and
product list. See
http://britishaplassociation.co.uk/
http://www.vector.org.uk

Chicago APL SIG
Larry Mysz
Chicago APL SIG
836 Highland Drive
Chicago Heights IL 60411, USA
email: 73040...@compuserve.com

Denmark
APL Special Interest Group of the Danish Data Association (DDA)
[4/2000]
Helene Boesen
email: h...@insight.dk

Dutch APL User Group [perhaps defunct? 8/2010]
APL Werkgroep Nederland
President: Theo Zwart
OASIS
Lekstraat, 4
NL3433 ZB Niewegein
The NETHERLANDS
Tel: +31 3402 66336
Fax: +31 3402 65844
Secretary: B. Smoor
Dorpstraat 50
4128BZ Lexmond
The Netherlands
Also contact: Eke Van Batenburg


Dyalog APL Groups [8 2016]
There is some updated information on current user groups at
http://www.dyalog.com/user-groups.htm

AFAPL (1/2005)
Association Francophone pour la promotion du langage APL
Les Nouvelles d'APL (journal 4/year) and other publications in
French. fee: 350 franch francs in France, 450 FF abroad, 2800 FF
for firms.
174, bd de Charonne
75020 PARIS
FRANCE
Tel & Fax: (33)-1-43-56-31-79)
President:Jacques Bouchard
General Secretary:Ludmila Lemagnen
email: lema...@aol.com
www: http://www.afapl.asso.fr

APL Germany [10/2010]
c/o Dr. Reiner Nussbaum
Buchernerstr. 78
D-69259 Mannheim, GERMANY
Tel: +49 621 7152190
email: in...@apl-germany.de
web: http://apl-germany.de


Groupe APL-J\Quebec (Quebec)[11/13/98]
APL user group in Quebec (city)
Gilles Kirouac, president
Quebec, Canada
email: gkir...@riq.qc.ca

Japan APL Association (JAPLA)
Japanese APL/J interest group.
Monthly meetings at every 3rd Saturday and hold study APL /J.
Currently published JAPLA's journal 2 times / year.
We welcome to our associate member who has an interest in APL/J.
JAPLA's Office:
c/o PRIDE
Masujima Bldg.
1-8-13, Higasi Gotanda,
Shinagawa ku,
Tokyo, 141 JAPAN
Tel: 81-3-3280-0411
Fax: 81-3-3280-0418
Chairman: Dr. Tosio Nishikawa
Laboratory National Chemical for Industry
Higashi 1-1, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305, Japan
International Interface: Masafusa Yasuda
2-4-10, Nogata,
Nakano ku,
Tokyo, 165, JAPAN
Tel/Fax: 81-3-3319-1956
email: mya...@mix.or.jp

APL Club Oesterreich
APL Club Oesterreich
Obere Donaustrasse 95
A-1020 Wein, AUSTRIA

Rome/Italy ACM SIGAPL
Casella Postale 14343
00100 - Roma Trullo, ITALY
Chair:Mario Sacco
email: mar...@vnet.ibm.com
Additional contact:David Lanari
Universita di Perugia
Piaza dell'Universita 2
Via G. Verga 30
I06100 Perugia, ITALY
email: da...@ipguniv.bitnet

NY/SIGAPL [revised 8/10/98]
The New York City local chapter of ACM SIGAPL.
Monthly meetings (ex July/August), newsletter "Big Apple APL",
"APL as a Tool of Thought" miniconferences, approx. annual.
Dues $35, $25 for ACM or ACM SIGAPL members, $10 for students.
PO Box 2697
New York,
NY 10163-2697
USA
Chairman: David E. Siegel
Tel: 609-734-9554 (work)
email: Sie...@acm.org
Newsletter editor: Jim Boyd
Tel: +1 914-941-9239
email: j...@acm.org
Membership chairman: Lynne C. Shaw
Tel: +1 212-662-2406
email: sh...@acm.org

Potomac ACM SIGAPL
The Potomac ACM SIGAPL Chapter has been inactive since August 1996.
For information about Potomac SIGAPL, send email to Dick Holt
(dick...@email.com).

SEAPL
South East APL Users' Group
Doc Manges
SEAPL Newsletter Editor
email: SEAP...@aol.com
Tel: 770-972-3755
413 Comanche Trail
Lawrenceville GA 30244
Other contacts:
Gordon and Stella Chamberlain
Interprocess Systems, Inc.
http://www.interprocess.com/[dead 12/2005]

SOCAL-SIGAPL
SOCAL-SIGAPL Southern California APL user's group. Inactive. [7/2004]
Editor: Arthur J. Stasney
Contacts:
asta...@earthlink.net (Arthur J. Stasney)
ji...@gte.com (Zdenek V. Jizba)

SovAPL
Alexander O. Skomorokhov
P.O. Box 5061
Obninsk - 5
Kaluga Region
RUSSIA
email: as...@apl2.obninsk.su
Dr Alexander Skomorokhov
Obninsk Institut of Nuclear Power/IATE
Studgorod 1
Obninsk
Kaluga Region 249020
RUSSIA
Tel: +7 084439 31463
Fax: +7 095 2552225
email: as...@apl2.obninsk.su

Suomen APL
Suomen APL-yhdistys ry (Finn APL Association) about 4 informal
newsletters/year, mainly in Finnish, one English issue/year.
Membership fees,per year: 100 Fmk (about 20 $). (March 1998)
Address: Box 1005, 00101 Helsinki, Finland
Chair: Timo Korpela (1998)
The Central Pension Security Institute
SF-00065 Elaketurvakeskus, Finland
Tel: +358 9 1512164, Fax: +358 9 1512496
http://www.finnapl.fi/

SWAPL
SWAPL -- SouthWest APL Users' Group
Membership fees, per year USA$12
Non-USA postal supplement$6

c/o Stuart Yarus (newsletter editor)
P.O. Box 210367
Bedford, TX 76095 U.S.A.
(817) 656 5896; (817) 577 0165
Compuserve: 73700,2545
Internet: 73700...@compuserve.com

SwedAPL
Chairman is Christer Ulfhielm.
c/o Novator Consulting Group AB
Svardvagen 11C
S-182 33 Danderyd
Sweden
Tel: +46 8 6226350
Fax: +46 8 6226351
email: 10034...@CompuServe.com (Christer Ulfhielm)

Swiss APL User(s) Group
Hans Steffen
Swiss APL User Group
c/o Federal Statistical Office
CH3003 Berne
SWITZERLAND
Fax: +41 31 382 27 95
See also:
Dr. Hanspeter Bieri
Institut fur Informatik
Universitat Berne
Langgasstrasse 51
CH3012 Bern
SWITZERLAND
Tel: +41 31 65 86 81
Fax: +41 31 65 39 65
email: email:bi...@iam.unibe.ch
email: s...@ifi.unizh.ch

Sydney APL Users Group
Newsletter (with contributions from Melbourne group): "Epsilon"
Acting President and Treasurer: Nick Laletin, Jr.
PO Box 1511
Macquarie Centre,
North Ryde 2113 Australia
Tel: +61 02 427 1605
Fax: (02) 257 6670
Secretary: Erik Nielson
Tel: +61 2 257 5742

Toronto ACM APL SIG
Toronto ACM APL SIG [8/2007]
http://www.torontoapl.ca
Chair: Dan King
email: danking(at)sympatico(dot)ca
Secretary: Richard Procter email: rjp(at)aplborealis(dot)com


(11) Q: What's the latest APL conference?
A: Conferences

NY/SIGAPL
APL as a Tool of Thought
Held Yearly in NY
Last Held: 31 January 1998

The APL2000 Customer Conference
The 2000 APL2000 Customer Conference
http://www.apl2000.com/2008UserConference.php

The Annual ACM SigAPL Conference
[No longer held]

Previous ACM SigAPL Conferences
APL2002: Array Processing Languages Lore, Problems and Applications,
July 22-25, 2002,
Madrid, Spain.

APL2001: An Arrays Odyssey, June 25-28, 2001,
Yale University, New Haven, CT, U.S.A.

APL Berlin 2000: The 2000 International Conference on Array
Programming Languages
Think Arrays in a Great City, July 24-27, 2000 - Berlin, Germany
APL99: The 1999 International Conference
on all Array Programming Languages
August 10-14, 1999 - University of Scranton, Scranton,
Pennsylvania, USA
See the ACM SIGAPL website, or subscribe to the APL99 mailing list.
You can subscribe by sending email to list...@acm.org with
"Subscribe APL99-Info Your Name" in the BODY of the msg (without the
quotes). You will be requested to confirm your subscription. You
will receive an automatic welcome msg and updated information as it is
available.

Previous conference proceedings are available from ACM as issues of
APL Quote Quad.

Dyalog User Meeting
See
http://www.dyalog.com/user-meetings/index.htm

SIGAPL Software Library
All Conference Packages, for all years, will be available
from SIGAPL and the Waterloo Archives at
http://www.math.uwaterloo.ca/apl_archives/apl/Welcome.html[partially
back 3/2006]


(12) Q: How do I pass APL functions from one APL to another?
A: Migration of applications

Different APL vendors store workspaces in completely different
formats. This has greatly reduced sharing of functions among users,
and made it difficult for users to migrate between vendors and even
between machines. Here there are some options -

o Use the Workspace Interchange Standard (WSIS), documented in the
ISO standard. This has been partially implemented by various
vendors. For example Manugistics (STSC) uses an SLT workspace to
do the reading/writing.

o Use the IBM )in and )out .atf files (documentation?) Here are
some concrete instructions, courtesy of Eke van Batenburg,

You only port APL, no GUI, no file I/O, no graphics, no locked
objects. The following recipees use (arbitrary choosen) filename
TRANSW.ATF on floppy as intermediate. "<>" means "next line".

o Macintosh APL68000 export to floppy:
[]MOUNT'Untitled' <> )OUT 0 TRANSWS
In finder, change file name to "TRANSWS.ATF"

o Macintosh APL68000 import from floppy:
In finder, change file name to "TRANSWS" (without ".ATF"
extension!!!)
[]MOUNT'Untitled' <> )IN 0 TRANSWS Problems:
"INVALID FILE" can mean "SYMBOL TABLE FULL" (check ")SYMBOLS"
and increase them to 1000) or comment lines in file (remove
all lines beginning with "*" using any editor and try again).

o Atari APL68000 export to floppy:
[]MOUNT 'A:' <> )OUT 0 TRANSWS

o Atari APL68000 import from floppy
[]MOUNT 'A:' <> )IN 0 TRANSWS
Problems: same as in point 2.

o IBM APL2/PC export to floppy:
)HOST A: <> )OUT TRANSWS

o IBM APL2/PC import from floppy:
)HOST A: <> )IN TRANSWS
Problems: none experienced upto now

o IBM mainframe export to floppy:
start APL with "APL2 CASE(2)" (necessary for underscored
conversion)
)CLEAR <> )COPY workspacetobeported (NOT LOAD!!!!)
)OUT TRANSWS <> )CLEAR <> )IN TRANSWS <> )OUT TRANSWS
(yes, 2x seems to work, 1x sometimes gives gibberish, I don't
know why)
Download ....APLTF.TRANSWS to floppy, rename to TRANSWS.ATF
Problems: if you download with Kermit: set TEXTMODE OFF and
set file TYPE BINARY

o IBM mainframe import from floppy
I have no experience with this, but I suppose:
Upload TRANSWS.ATF to file ...APLTF.TRANSWS
)IN TRANSWS

o APL2000 APL+DOS, APL+UNIX, APL+Win export to floppy:
]OUT A:TRANSWS.ATF

o APL2000 APL+DOS, APL+UNIX, APL+Win import from floppy:
]IN A:TRANSWS.ATF
Problems: Different from IBM or APL68000 or "extended standard"
are:
"A B C[2]" is B, partioned enclose, squeezed quad,
monadic ",[1.5]", take with axis and scalar functions with axis.

o Dyalog APL:
Dyalog includes User Commands for workspace transfer; these are
documented in the Workspace Transfer Guide, supplied with
Dyalog APL.

o APLX reportedly provides )IN and )OUT commands compatible with
APL2/PC and APL2/370.

o NARS2000 also supports migration through .atf files
written out by )OUT and read in by )IN.

o Write the functions/data out to ASCII files using some sort of
transliteration scheme (see 11). This has the advantage over
(1) that the files are human-readable and editable.
o VisualAPL from APL2000 provides two simple options for importing
APL code from legacy APL's:
o Select the APL code in the source APL's session and
Paste Special it into VisualAPL in Microsoft Visual Studio
2005/2008.
o An ActiveX component is provided with VisualAPL to en
masse convert the legacy APL code to Unicode and store it in
a text file which can be used by VisualAPL.
VisualAPL does not use a proprietary workspace format for storing
APL code, instead it stores APL code in Unicode text files which
can be run as interpreted APL scripts or as compiled APL .Net
classes using Microsoft Visual Studio 2005/2008. VisualAPL Unicode
text files can also be directly compiled without Visual Studio
using the command line compiler provided with the Microsoft .Net
framework.
VisualAPL does not use a proprietary APL 'session', but instead
uses the mainstream Microsoft Visual Studio 2005/2008 IDE
[Interactive Development Environment].

All schemes suffer from the basic incompatibility between APL
vendors. This comes from extensions to standard ISO APL in several
areas:

o Different built in functions - the quad functions. This includes
file IO, graphics etc. Also the (mostly obsolete) ibeam
functions.
o Generalized arrays - boxes versus nests. A major fight in the
community for at least the last 10 years. Unresolved.
o User defined operators - not all implementations allow this.
o Multivalent functions - not all implementations allow this.

Each instance of the above requires someone who knows both
implementations to rewrite the code. Hence only ISO APL is easily
portable.


(13)
Q:How do I write APL using only ASCII?
A: Writing APL in ASCII

Almost all vendors have provided ways to enter APL from non-APL
terminals. They took forms such as @BOX for example. For some reason
however, they all used different symbol sets and different
transliterations. Hence all are incompatible. Various users, seeing
the advantage of this approach versus the WSIS have tried their
hands.

I there are several separate issues: writing an APL character, writing
APL data, writing APL functions, and writing out a whole workspace.

Approaches for APL characters :

o Jim Weigang has proposed a verbose version that is probably the
current standard.
http://www.chilton.com/~jimw/a2apapr1.html
Example: s {<-} +/ {rho} , a
Transliteration programs for many APL's are available at
http://www.chilton.com/~jimw/a2ardme.html
[this link works, but the program links point to inaccessible parts of
waterloo... this currently gets to real programs:
http://www.math.uwaterloo.ca/apl_archives/apl/software-library/apl95/]

o My own approach is a bit more terse - see aplc, symbols3v1.txt on
my home page
Example: s .is + / .ro , a

o William Chang (wch...@phage.cshl.org)
has proposed a J-ish verion called APL!
Example: s <- +/ ? , a

Approaches for objects:
o John Mitloehner (mitl...@uxq.wu-wien.ac.at)
has proposed a PP scheme for this that includes data and functions.
See his article at APL92. Code for various APLs is available at
waterloo. Example:

@begin function NUB
R@is NUB X
R@is ((X@iota X)= @iota @rho X)/X
@end function

Code is also available for incorporation of APL into latex
documents. See J. Mitlohner (1992), Porting APL Programs via ASCII
Transliteration. APL Quote Quad, 23(1):148-155.

o Jim Weigang proposes the more familiar "Del editor" output
format. Sample code for this translator is available in this
format.



(14)
Q:What about Unicode?
A: Writing APL in Unicode
This section needs some work
Unicode (http://www.unicode.org/) was
conceived as a way of storing data in any of the worlds
languages. This includes APL. Most modern computer OS seem to support
this. Most modern APLs natively support unicode now. Of course fonts
are needed, and programs that can display/interact with the data.
Most (all?) fonts are incomplete, as there are a lot of glyphs need to
represent everything, so of course many don't include all APL
characters (or Devanagari, Tibetan,...).

o Phil Chastney has written an article and included a Unicode font
with APL characters
http://www.vector.org.uk
o Markus Triska has some notes on APL/Unicode at
http://www.metalevel.at/unicapl/
Included there is an apl.el file for Emacs, that allows entering unicode
charaters using apl-ascii.
o Adrian Smith's unicode font apl385 along with other information
and fonts is available at http://www.vector.org.uk.




*free usually means you can get it for free from the net, or pay small
media/documentation charges to get it from the vendor.

Changes/Additions:
swsi...@earthlink.net

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