@Anthony - didn't realise you were following this list. Is I-APL Ltd still in business?
I-APL and its associated products got shop-windowed regularly in Vector's "APL Product Guide" until this was discontinued. Thereafter it dropped off people's radar. Maybe the I-APL interpreter itself is only of historical interest, but the books produced to accompany it, by Thompson, Alvord, Helzer and others were IMO truly outstanding. It's a shame if they're lost to the educational world. The interpreter itself fulfilled (fulfils?) a key role in validating the examples they contain. A sort of "standard candle", even if you'd never use it for lighting the house. Ian On Thu, Dec 5, 2013 at 3:07 PM, Anthony Camacho <[email protected]>wrote: > I'm very grateful, Ian, for your help in adding I-APL dates to the > Chronology. > > I-APL was the second APL interpreter that Paul Chapman wrote. The first > was VIZ::APL which ran on ZX80 processors. I bought a Nascom Gemini to be > able to run it. > > I-APL/PC is still available if anyone wants it. It will run in a command > window on a PC but, because it was written for 8-bit addressing the maximum > workspace is 32K. Paul did do a version with 16-bit addressing to take > advantage of the memory of the Archimedes, but I don't have a copy of the > Archimedes port or of the interpreter in its intermediate language (DE - > Paul called it 'development environment' and said he'd originally called it > 'development environment language' but changed the name when he found he > was unaccountably losing files!) I'm sure there was a 16-bit version which > ran on the PC, but I don't have a copy. > > After the second version of I-APL was issued no further bugs have ever > been reported. I think that is a remarkable achievement. > Anthony Camacho > > ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ian Clark" <[email protected]> > To: "General forum" <[email protected]> > Sent: Thursday, December 05, 2013 2:01 PM > Subject: Re: [Jgeneral] APL Chronology > > > > an interesting document in itself that I ought to upload it to the J wiki. >>> >> >> As promised: >> >> http://www.jsoftware.com/jwiki/Essays/history_of_iapl >> >> >> On Tue, Nov 26, 2013 at 9:20 AM, Ian Clark <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> > [1991] IAPL/Mac, an ultra-portable APL interpreter written by Paul >>> Chapman, released >>> >>> No, the name of the portable interpreter was I-APL. >>> >>> IAPL/Mac was just one of many ports, to a wide range of platforms. For a >>> list of ports which existed in any given year, indeed for the current >>> version of every APL interpreter known to the British APL Association, >>> see >>> the APL Product Guide, published in every issue of Vector from its >>> inception in May 1984. This valuable reference was only discontinued in >>> 2008. >>> >>> The I-APL project was founded by a committee consisting of Ed Cherlin, >>> Anthony Camacho, Norman Thomson, Howard Peelle and Dave Ziemann. The >>> committee raised donations to commission Paul Chapman to produce I-APL. >>> All >>> ports were to be released as freeware for educational use. Prior to >>> that, I >>> believe there was no APL interpreter that cost less than $450, which >>> limited its use in schools. Correction: killed APL as far as schools were >>> concerned and ensured nobody entered their first job knowing how to use >>> it. >>> In marked contrast virtually everyone leaving school (in the UK) had >>> written simple programs in BASIC. I-APL's enduring legacy was to >>> encourage >>> major vendors to release low-cost or free educational versions of their >>> interpreters: generally a back-release. >>> >>> I-APL fitted into 32K (sic!) but needed a "p-code machine" to run the >>> implementation language: DE. The task of a "porter" was to write the DE >>> interpreter for the machine of his or her choice. Simple enough -- if you >>> knew the platform intimately and could code in ASM. >>> >>> Paul finished I-APL and released it to volunteer porters (including >>> myself) in 1987. The first port was to the IBM PC, released in January >>> 1988. Effectively it was "open source", though the concept is a recent >>> one. >>> But of course free open source software was IBM policy prior to 1969, >>> when >>> the US govt forced it to charge for software by a consent decree -- >>> thereby >>> creating the multi-trillion dollar software industry overnight. >>> >>> I have a copy of the IAPL/Mac User Guide, dated 15/2/91. I recall the Mac >>> port was released before then, but lacking evidence I must accept that >>> date >>> for its release. Chapter 1 is "History and Aims of the I-APL Project" -- >>> such an interesting document in itself that I ought to upload it to the J >>> wiki. >>> >>> In fact I propose that every item on Devon's list gets a link to a >>> supporting page on the J wiki. Or, more ambitiously: Wikipedia. >>> >>> >>> On Sun, Nov 24, 2013 at 6:49 PM, Devon McCormick <[email protected] >>> >wrote: >>> >>> Hi - >>>> >>>> I've put up a preliminary draft of the APL chronology I've assembled >>>> with >>>> the help of many on this forum: >>>> http://www.sigapl.org/APLChronology.php >>>> .<http://www.sigapl.org/APLChronology.php> >>>> >>>> Anyone who's interested should please take a look and feel free to point >>>> out any errors or omissions. Also, any suggestions for presenting the >>>> information more elegantly are also welcome. >>>> >>>> Thanks, >>>> >>>> Devon >>>> -- >>>> Devon McCormick, CFA >>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >>>> For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm >>>> >>>> >>> >>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >> For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm >> > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
