APL,

I'm totally new to APL and I've just been approached to migrate a business
database from APL Application that runs on Windows '98 workstation, however,
all files appear to be located on the NT Server. The application is in APL +
Win 3.6.02.

In this case, would APL Application have a backend database or a file(s)
that it links to? Or would the Application and the database be all in one
file?

The largest file that I located had "ws" file extension that was about 1.5
MB. Could this possibly be the App + Data? If so, how can I export or
extract the data?

Or am I looking at a wrong file altogether?

Thanks,
Ik.

ik,

I think you need a good consultant but I'll try to give you a few pointers.
APL is an interpretive language that interpretes its code code while its
executing. It has a motor (the interpreter), workspaces (programmed
functions) and files.

The interpreter is usually an exe file (aplwin36.exe). If it's runtime it
might has the name of the application as the name of the interpreter.

The workspaces for the system you mentioned are w3 files, not ws. The ws
files are for a much earlier version of APL+DOS. They are a special format
and cannot be used by anything other than APL+Win.The file you refer to is
more than likely not used by the system.

The data files are sf files and they are a special format which to convert
them would require someone familiar with APL. They can be used by almost all
versions of APL2000's products.

The solution to your problem is not difficult for someone who knows APL but
a its nightmare for someone who doesn't. Much depends on what you want to do
and where you are going to migrate the files.

My best,

Fred

"Age is strictly a case of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't
matter."

Jack Benny

APL is a very versatile language, which means the data could be stored
either in native DOS / Win
file(s), specific APL file(s), or even in the 'Workspace' (.ws) file(s)
mixed up with 'Functions' (programs), the last one would be an amateurs
solution.
To make things even more tricky the data can be stored in any number of
formats such as multidimensional matrices and/or enclosed arrays etc.

The short answer is you need an APL literate person to read the programs and
decipher what it does with the data. Ideally there should be a documentation
telling you all that, but in the real world you are lucky if you get an out
of date draft.....
Regards,
Martin