Subj : APL2 for OS/2
To   : Ray Hyder
From : David Noon
Date : Sun Jun 03 2001 01:55 am

Hi Ray,

Replying to a message of Ray Hyder to David Noon:

 DN>> APL is a language developed by Dr. Kenneth Iverson of IBM in the 
 DN>> early 1960's. It was designed for teaching formal mathematics, 
 DN>> primarily matrix algebra. It is written right-to-left, not 
 DN>> left-to-right, and uses Greek symbols [Z-code, not ASCII or  EBCDIC]
 DN>> quite extensively for its mathematical operators. Most  people find
 DN>> it impenetrable, and one must use it fairly  frequently to remain
 DN>> fluent. 

 RH> David, APL is possibly the wost language ever developed for the
 RH> computer. 

It depends what one is doing.

 RH> BTW: APL means A Programming Language 

That is actually the title of Iverson's original paper defining the abstract 
language. Nobody at IBM could think of a better title [that could be 
published!] for the language, so APL stuck.

 RH> One must also have an APL keyboard. Or a PC keyboard reconfigured for
 RH> APL.

Not so. I use ISI's APL/386 here using a standard 102-key Logitech keyboard. 
[ISI = Iverson Software Inc., of Toronto, Ontario] The way that interpreter's 
IDE works is that it maps scan code combinations into the exotic Z-code 
characters. This makes for some Liberace-style keyboard work, but it serves the 
purpose.

However, the original S/360 implementation did use an IBM 2741 "golf-ball" 
terminal (hard-copy at 150 baud!) with a custom golf-ball and a custom 
keyboard; the comms interface had to know Z-code too. No other output medium 
was supported until APL print chains became available for the IBM 1403 line 
printer.

 RH> Impenetrable?  APL is the only language I've ever seen where the
 RH> person that wrote the line of code could not explain what it did one
 RH> day later. 

Many times a lot *less* than a day!

Regards

Dave
<Team PL/I>

--- FleetStreet 1.25.1
 * Origin: My other computer is an IBM S/390 (2:257/609.5)

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