APL Frequently Asked Questions (well some, anyway)
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Maintained by S.W. Sirlin July 23, 1993
Thanks to the many people who have contributed to this list.
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(1) APL sources
APL\11 Freely available interpreter for UNIX (C), thanks to Michael
Cain. Currently has some bugs.
ftp: watserv1.waterloo.edu.
APL.68000 (Atari ST, Commodore Amiga, IBM RS/6000, Mac level I/II,
add in board for IBM pc's):
In North America:
Spencer Organization
24 Wampum Road
Park ridge, NJ USA 07656
Phone: +1-201-307-9099, Fax: +1-201-307-9404
For the rest of the world:
MicroAPL Limited
South Bank Technopark
90 London Road,
London UK SE1 6LN
Phone: +44-71-922-8866 Fax: +44-71-928-1006
Telex: 896885 IOTA
APL90 (Mac?):
Jean-Jacques Girardot
School Mines
St-Etienne, France
CAPL (IBM PC) shareware interpreter
Thomas Glen Smith
3154 W. Shady Lane
Neenah, WI
ftp: waterloo
DEC (VAX APL V4.0, DEC 20 APLSF?):
Digital Equipment Corp.
20 Old Bolton Road (0G01-1/G11)
Stow MA, USA 01775
Phone: (508) 496-9686
Dyalog APL (Unix, APL/W for Windows):
Source:
Dyadic Systems Ltd.
Riverside View, Basing Road, Old Basing, Basingstoke
Hampshire RG24 0AL, UK
Tel: 011-44-(256) 811125 Fax: (0256) 811130
US Distributor:
MIPS Software Development Inc
33493 W. Four{*filter*} Mile Rd
Suite 10
Farmington Hills, Mich 48331
Tel: (313) 661-5000, Fax: (313) 661-5826
I-APL (IBM PC, Mac, some other PCs) (free*):
In the US:
Edward M. Cherlin
Co-Chairman, I-APL Limited
6611 Linville Drive
Weed, California, USA 96094-9763
(916) 938-4684
In the UK:
Anthony Camacho
Co-Chairman, I-APL Limited
11 Auburn Road
Redland
Bristol BS6 6LS UK
IBM APL (APL2 and TryAPL2 [free*] for PCs, APL2/6000 for RS/6000, IBM
mainframes)
APL Products (M46)
IBM Santa Teresa, Dept. M46/D12
555 Bailey Avenue
San Jose, California 95141, USA
Voice-mail: 408-463-APL2 (408-463-2752)
APL2 for the PC is, in the USA, part number 6242936 from "IBM
Direct" at 800-IBM-2468 (800-426-2468) or product 5799-PGG
from your IBM representative.
J & Sharp APL/PC/386 (J is free*, PC version of Sharp APL is free*,
APLI386 is cheap):
Iverson Software Inc.
33 Major Street
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 2K9
Voice: 416-925-6096 Fax: 416-488-7559
Manugistics (formerly STSC): APL*PLUS (PCs [DOS,Windows], Unix, VMS,
Statgraphics )
Manugistics Inc.
2115 East Jefferson St.
Rockville, Maryland, USA 20852
301-984-5000 or 800-592-0050 or 301-984-5123 Fax: 301-984-5094
Sharp APL (MVS, AIX, SunOS; Viewpoint APL 4GL):
Soliton Associates Limited (Formerly I. P. Sharp Associates)
44 Victoria St, Suite 2100
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5C 1Y2
(416) 364-9355, (716) 256-6466, or +31-20-570-8733
Q'Nial:
Nial Systems Ltd
Queen's University and Nial Systems
155 Queen Street, Ninth Floor
Ottawa, Ontario
(613) 234-4188)
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(2) Terminal Emulation
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
IRMA (PC)
Digital Communications Associates, Inc.
1000 Alderman Drive
Alpharetta, Georgia 30201-4199 USA
tel. (404) 442-4000
OS/2 Communications Manager in the Extended Services. Includes a CMAPL
routine that defines an APL character set and supports APL2 on
the mainframe. Includes GDDM support for graphics.
IBM or OS/2 vendor
RUMBA (for 3270, apl and graphics)
Wall Data
17769 NE 78th Place
Redmond WA 98052-4992
206-883-4777
TN3270 (Macintosh) Not public domain, but may be freely distributed.
Works with TCP/IP
Anonymous FTP from BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU (128.148.128.40):
Distribution files are in the highest level directory. Begin by
retrieving the file $README.FIRST which describes the other files.
Anonymous FTP from FTP.NCSA.UIUC.EDU (128.174.20.50):
Distribution files are contained in the directory
NCSA_Telnet/tn3270. Same files as above above for
BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU.
Send LISTSERV the command GET TN3270 PACKAGE. GET LOCAL FILELIST
for a complete list of available files.
Mail order from Brown for $20 (check payable to Brown University):
TN3270 Distribution
Brown University Computer Store
P.O. Box 1885
Providence, Rhode Island 02912 USA
Info -- the NCSA Telnet Digest subscription:
X3270 - 3270 emulator for the X Window System (UNIX workstations)
Kathy Lange
IBM
X3270 Marketing and Development
Neighborhood Road MS/228
Kingston, NY 12401
Phone: (914) 385-5527
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
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(3) Compilers and other tools
APL to C conversion and compiler
Sofremi-AGL
6. rue Paul Bert
92800 Puteaux - France
(1) 47.72.25.13 + Telex: 612 651 F
VSAPL to C conversion and compiler
Dr. Wai-Mee Ching
Computer Science Department
T. J. Watson Research Center
P.O. Box 704
Yorktown Heights, NY 10598
Phone: 914-784-7748
IEDIT (APL2 editor), APL2 compiler (to fortran, marketing this for IBM),
AFM file system, APL2 tools.
Interprocess Systems, Inc.
9040 Roswell Road, Suite 690
Atlanta, Georgia 30350-1131 USA
(404) 992-8400 Fax: (404) 998-4869
Experimental:
Tim Budd's latest APLc:
anonymous login to cs.orst.edu,
cd pub/budd and grab the files apl.*
or send a mail message through the internet to
with the single word apl on the subject line.
My current modification (3.6) of Budd's older aplc:
anonymous ftp to: 128.149.29.4 csi.jpl.nasa.gov
Computer Aided Instruction, for PC or mainframe IBM. Also a newsletter.
Zark Incorporated
53 Shenipsit Street
Vernon, CT 06066
Tel. (203) 872-7806
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(4) Online information, free* APLs & WS
1. APL\BBS
Sysop{*filter*} Holt
HRH Systems
3802 N. Richmond St.
Arlington VA 22207
(703) 528-7617
Free mail (suggested $24/year or up/downloads $10/year ).
Mostly IBM pc/STSC, lots of education, cryptography, DC area Sig,
large collection of ws. Free download of the latest J, ISI
APLISW; Sharp APL/PC available. Catalog bbsfiles.zip (about 35k).
Supports 1200 - 14400 baud (N-8-1), v.32 bis.
2. Anonymous ftp
csi.jpl.nasa.gov (128.149.29.4)
The site for this FAQ, my version of the apl compiler (3.6),
some scripts for J,{*filter*}J language summary, J faq.
See the directory pub/apl
exaia.wu-wien.ac.at (137.208.15.200)
some J sources, particularly for HP
ftp.cs.ualberta.ca
Introduction to J using statistics, pub/smillie/intj.*
gatekeeper.dec.com
The site of Committee Draft 1 of the APL ANSI/ISO standard
(1/93) in:
pub/plan/apl/cover.ps (a cover letter)
pub/plan/apl/aplcd1.ps (the main document)
nova.cc.purdue.edu, cs.orst.edu
some NEXT/J material: j.pkg.tar, Visage.pkg.tar
watserv1.waterloo.edu (watserv1.uwaterloo.ca) (129.97.129.140)
L.J.{*filter*}ey's collection. Current J distribution for many machines
(and J source, including LinkJ), APL\11, CAPL, IAPL, TryAPL,
RatAPL, APL fonts, TeX macros and fonts, the toronto toolkit,
some other WS, archives of comp.lang.apl, the APL standard,
and this FAQ. These are in directories starting from directory
languages/apl
wuvieai.wu-wien.ac.at (137.208.15.20)
This mirror of the APL Archives on watserv1 may be more
convenient for users in Europe. Start in the directory
/pub/lang/apl
3. Mail server
4. Bitnet mail server
5. Inquiries about the proposed ISO standard should be addressed to
the mailing-list at
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(5) APL fonts
Besides comercial products that come with the interpreters, there are
fonts for TeX and the X windows system avaiable on waterloo. Truetype
fonts for windows are available from ISI and Manugistics.
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(6) Sources of Publications/Books
APL News
Edward M. Cherlin, Editor
(address above)
APL Quote Quad
Association for Computing Machinery
(address below)
Renaissance Data Systems
PO Box 20023
Park West Finance Station
NY, NY USA 10025-1510
(212) 864-3078
(SIGAPL book sale, executive editor of Quote-Quad)
Robert G. Brown
116 Bentley Avenue
Old Bridge, New Jersey, USA 08857-1336
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(7) References - books mentioned on the net, not all of which are
available
Brown et. al. "APL2 at a Glance," Prentice Hall, ISBN 0-13-038670-7.
T. Budd, "An APL Compiler," Springer-Verlag.
J. Ever and C. Fair, "Guidelines for APL Systems,"
DPD 22 IBM 037301, March 1976.
Gilman and Rose, "APL - An Interactive Approach," Wiley,
ISBN 220-471-30022-5.
Kent Haralson, Useful APL Defined Functions, IBM Technical
Report, TR 00.2409, Feb. 8 1973.
Timothy Holls, "APL Programming Guide," IBM G320-6103, 1978, and
G320-6735, 1981, (out of print?).
S. Kamin, "Programming Languages: An Interpreter-Based
Approach," contains (among other things) toy implementations of
Lisp, APL, Scheme, SASL, CLU, Smalltalk, and Prolog.
IBM, "An Introduction to APL2" (SH20-9229).
IBM, "APL2 Programming: Language Reference"
(SH20-9227 or SH21-1061?).
Adrian Smith:
"APL A Design Handbook for Commercial Systems"
(Wiley series in information processing)
Wiley & Sons, 1982, ISBN 0-471-10092-7.
"The APL Handbook of Techniques," IBM publication number
S320-5996, April 1978.
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(8) User groups
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) 626-0611 Fax: (212) 302-5826
APLBUG
APL Bay Area Users Group, Northern California ACM SIGAPL
Meets monthly, regular newsletter, $20/yr.
Secretary/Treasurer
Lew Robinson
1100 Gough Street, Apt. 14A
San Francisco, CA 95109
Tel. 415-928-2058
Prodigy frgp21a
BAA
British APL Association, a specialist group of the British Computer
Society, international membership.
Quarterly journal VECTOR maintains a comprehensive vendor and
product list.
British APL Association
FREEPOST (SG923)
8 Cardigan Road
London E3 5HU UK
CPCUG APL SIG
Capital PC User Group APL Special Interest Group
Free monthly meetings
51 Monroe Street, Plaza East Two
Rockville, Maryland 20850-2421
Tel: (301) 762-9372 FAX: (301) 762-9375
CPCUG MIX (Member Information Exchange BBS): (301) 738-9060
NY/SIGAPL
The New York City local chapter of ACM SIGAPL
Monthly meetings (ex July/August), newsletter "BIG APL",
"APL as a Tool of Thought" miniconferences (the eighth
in November). Dues $35, $25 for ACM and for ACM SIGAPL
members, $10 for students.
PO Box 138
New York, New York 10815-0002
Potomac ACM SIGAPL Chapter
Free monthly meetings
Dues: $25, $20 for ACM/ACMSIGAPL members, $10 for students
c/o CPCUG APL SIG
51 Monroe Street, Plaza East Two
Rockville, Maryland 20850-2421
Tel: (301) 762-9372 FAX: (301) 762-9375
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 $)
Address: Box 1005, 00101 Helsinki, Finland
Chair: Eero Korpelainen
University of Joensuu,
Department of Statistics, Box 111,
80101 Joensuu, Finland
Telefax: 358-73-1513290
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
Toronto ACM APL SIG (sponsoring APL93)
Meets the 4th monday of September through May, excluding December,
Attendance is free and membership is CAD 25 per year, CAD 5 for
full time students.
Treasurer: Eric Granz 416-980-7149
P.O. Box 384
Adelaid Street Post Office
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5C 2J5
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(9) Conferences
APL93 (ACM SigAPL)
August 15-19, 1993
Toronto,Canada
For an invitation, send a request with your name and address
or via email with either "send status" or "send registration"
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*free usually means you can get it for free from the net, or pay small
media/documentation charges to get it from the vendor.
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Changes/Additions:
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--
Sam Sirlin
apl faq