I remember replacing the character generator eprom (the type with the
window for UV erasing) on an old ATI EGA video board so that I could
have the APL character set.
On 5/1/2024 7:14 PM, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote:
APL was incredible. I was amazed. I was immediately able to do a few
simple things that were useful for my boss and myself, and writing
simple programs within hours. Its matrix arithmetic was awesome. APL
typeball on a selectric terminal at GSFC, . . .
Some of the keys were re-labeled, but there was a chart on the wall of
which keyboard characters were which APL symbols.
On Wed, 1 May 2024, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:
It was indeed. It was also one of the first languages implemented on a
microprocessor-based personal computer system. (MCM-70).
To me, APL is logical--strict right-to-left precedence; simple array and
matrix operations.
I've long wondered if we introduced students to APL as a first language,
what our applications code would look like today.
My friend Bruce, called it "That Iverson Language".
It's interesting to note that the Iverson book was published in 1962,
but an implementation (under 7090 IBSYS) didn't come about until 1965,
although preliminary implementation as PAT had been done on a 1620 (!)
in 1963.
The extended character set was an important obstacle to its
acceptance. Besides keyboard (masking tape) and output (APL typeball,
special character generator, or having to substitute combinations of
character), many people were unwilling to even try something with a
different character set.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
