Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!watmath!maytag!water!ljdickey From: ljdickey@water.waterloo.edu (Lee Dickey) Newsgroups: comp.lang.apl Subject: Re: APL Novice Looking fer Wisdom Keywords: APL; standards; versions; teaching Message-ID: <2666@water.waterloo.edu> Date: 25 Sep 89 12:46:39 GMT References: <5509@tank.uchicago.edu> Reply-To: ljdickey@water.waterloo.edu (Lee Dickey) Organization: U. of Waterloo, Ontario Lines: 78 In article <5509@tank.uchicago.edu> keith@curry.uchicago.edu (Keith Waclena) writes: >1. Versions / Standards of APL: briefly, what are the significant difference > between ANSI/BSI/ISO Standard APL, APL2, and ``Dictionary APL''? This is a quick look at differences, which are deep, in one sense, but not so great in another. Sadly existing implementations now use some same symbols for different meanings, and this contributes to confusion. Dictionary APL is a conforming extension to Std APL. It has BOX to make generalized arrays, it has the rank operator, and some other new operators. APL2 has ENCLOSE to make generalized arrays. It has some non-conforming extensions to Std APL, due to some syntax changes. Functions pervade the structure of enclosed arrays. >2. Is there any standard for the stored format of APL workspaces? No. But there are standards for workspace interchange. WSIS0 and WSIS1. >3. Is there any standard for the APL character set? Yes, but there are several answers to your question. First, there is the minimal set, are those needed to define the standard. Second there are those in the APL-ASCII overlay, and certain defined composites. Finally, there is a pending APL plane in a forthcoming Character Set Standard, which consists of all known chararacters ever used in any APL character set, and maybe some more. See "APL Quot Quad", 14/2, Dececember 1983 for the first two. The other exists only in the working papers of character set standards committees. >4. Is there any standard for the layout of APL characters on a keyboard? A defacto standard for the layout of the IBM PC keyboard, subjected to the APL-ASCII overlay, with composites done as overstrikes. Every mainframe APL I know has "front end" tables that accept this convention. Two other popular layouts are the Union and the Unionized keyboards, that use SHIFT and ALT keys to get the APL and composites. >5. Is there any standard for an ASCII transliteration of APL >characters? Does Dictionary APL have anything to do with this? Yes, two. One is the APL ASCII overlay, an appendix to the Standard, given in APL Quote Quad 14/2, Dec 83, the other is Iverson's codes, APL Quote Quad, 18/1, Sept 87. There are also those done by Xerox, DEC, Honeywell, but to the best of my knowledge, no two manufacturers use the same. There are more. No, not directly, but Iverson's codes are in the back of this edition of the dictionary. (APL Quote Quad, 18/1, Sept 87). >6. Can anyone give me an exact citation for a recent article by >Iverson on Dictionary APL? I think it was in the *Quote Quad*, but I >need the exact volume/number or date to get it out of our library's >bindery... Volume 18, Number 1 September, 1987 >7. I'm interested in math textbooks that use APL notation; does >anybody have any good ones to recommend? Has anybody reading this >ever taken a math class that used APL as the main notation? Sims: Algebra (?) Orth: (?) (?): Calculus in a new key Iverson: Tangible Math (1989) -- L. J. Dickey, Faculty of Mathematics, University of Waterloo. ljdickey@water.UWaterloo.ca ljdickey@water.BITNET ljdickey@water.UUCP ..!uunet!watmath!water!ljdickey ljdickey@water.waterloo.edu