Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!rutgers!mailrus!uflorida!gatech!mcnc!thorin!prins.cs.unc.edu!prins From: prins@prins.cs.unc.edu (Jan Prins) Newsgroups: comp.lang.apl Subject: Re: Is APL a dying language? Message-ID: <5557@thorin.cs.unc.edu> Date: 29 Nov 88 16:18:39 GMT References: <7082@claris.com> <264@blake.acs.washington.edu> Sender: root@thorin.cs.unc.edu Lines: 38 from article <7082@claris.com>: > ... STSC was bought out a while ago and not very interested in the > APL end-user community. If you want to time-share and buy services from them > they are very interested in you. > Max Rochlin (claris!max@ames.arc.nasa.gov) Correct me if I'm wrong (or even if I'm not), but I thought the sequence of events was that (1) STSC was acquired by CONTEL essentially as a well- connected (network-wise) data processing center, and (2) was re-acquired from CONTEL by STSC employees when diversification into the computer industry became less attractive a few years back. STSC still sells time-shared APL (and other service) cycles, but also supplies APL*PLUS systems for various configurations of end-user machines. I imagine they sell where the money is: APL*PLUS/PC for PCs and (a smaller market) APL*PLUS/UNX for various unix systems and workstations. The latter is a full implementation of APL with nested arrays, native and component files and plenty of unix interfacing support (Quad-SH, etc.). This last summer STSC released APL*PLUS II which is a hybrid of the two products listed above for 80386 machines: a fully modern APL system with the PC product user-interface. It is optimized for the 80386 and feels at least as fast on a 20mhz Compaq as APL*PLUS/UNX on a 20Mhz Sun-3. I don't know anything about their Mac product line, but one can always hope that it might someday evolve in a similar fashion. There are a lot of Mac IIs floating around here, but they are used almost exclusively for document preparation and illustration. If this is indicative of the broader market, then I imagine APL for a MAC would not be a high-volume item. Jan Prins Dept. of Computer Science UNC Chapel Hill (*) claimers and disclaimers: a trade- or service-mark is held on many of the capitalized words above by various companies; none of those companies claim that I am in any way a spokesman for them. Opinions only; no facts here.