Paul, Bill,
Regarding APL-11 and its source code. This was the focus of a software archeology
effort in 2021. I had bought the APL-11 package from DECUS on 9-track tape when DEC
donated it to DECUS when they decided to no longer sell it. Then could be ordered from the
DECUS Library (Order No. 11-SP-25).
Then on the RSX SIG tape RSX85A:[370,360], Bob Awde from General Mills provided a few
modified .MAC, .ODL, and .CMD files that converted APL-11 to a I/D space task with FCS
Supervisor mode. This gives you a workspace of just over 52,000 bytes on RSX11M+ with a
I/D space CPU.
Unfortunately, there were changes made to how TKB overlays task images and these
patches and in fact the original source e code could no longer be compiled with RSX TKB.
The task images from the original DECUS source ran but one could not rebuild the task from
the Macro-11 sources. I struggled with this for a number of years until I got a couple
(much smarter than I) friends to get interested in fixing. It.
First, Lee Gleason, figured out what was happening with TKB and the overlays and managed
to make some hacks that created a I/D space version of APL-11. He described that work on
his RSX blog:
https://rsx11.blogspot.com/2021/02/
Then Johnny Billquist saw the blog and decided to work on the distribution. He fixed the
.ODL and .CMD to work properly with the new TKB overlay mechanisms, and while he was at
it, fixed several bugs in the original APL-11 that affected a number of things. He also
modified it to fix a Y2K problem and to handle named directories.
Today if you use Johnny’s RPM package manager APL-11 can be downloaded and the latest
version is V2.2.2 Also, there is a VT220 downloadable APL font on that RSX85A Sig tape in
[370,361] and a task to compose new fonts.
I also had an APL-11 user’s manual that I scanned and made available at:
http://www.rsx11m.com/APL-11-Ref-Man.pdf
The release notes are at
http://www.rsx11m.com/APL11ins.pdf
The APL-11 quick reference card is at
http://www.rsx11m.com/APL_Reference_Card.pdf
You can also get the APL-11 manuals from Johnny’s virtual PDP-11/74 MIM at
http://mim.softjar.se/manuals/LAYERED/
The latest version of the modified sources could be obtained from Johnny as well.
The quick reference card is especially helpful to learn the two letter replacements for
APL characters. For example, the square “quad” is .QD so to see the available workspace
.QDWA works with standard ascii terminals. Matrix divide (Quad, back-space Divide symbol)
is .DQ so .DQM inverts matrix M.
Best,
Mark Matlock
From: Paul Koning <paulkoning(a)comcast.net>
Subject: [cctalk] APL-11 sources
Date: October 1, 2026 at 6:49:36 PM CDT
To: "cctalk(a)classiccmp.org" <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
Reply-To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
I was just wandering through some old disk images and spotted something I missed for
years: a directory holding what looks like a set of source files and build scripts for
APL-11.
I have no idea where this came from or why I have it; while I have used APL I have not
used it on a PDP-11, nor ever installed it.
Is this something others already have that is a known to be good version, or should I go
dig through this and verify it, then archive it properly?
paul
From: Bill Gunshannon <bill.gunshannon(a)hotmail.com>
Subject: [cctalk] Re: APL-11 sources
Date: October 1, 2026 at 7:08:37 PM CDT
To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org
Reply-To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
On 10/1/2026 7:49 PM, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote:
I was just wandering through some old disk images
and spotted something I missed for years: a directory holding what looks like a set of
source files and build scripts for APL-11.
I have no idea where this came from or why I have it; while I have used APL I have not
used it on a PDP-11, nor ever installed it.
Is this something others already have that is a known to be good version, or should I go
dig through this and verify it, then archive it properly?
I would imagine it is the one distributed by DECUS. I have a copy here
somewhere but I, too, never got around to getting it working. And, yes,
I know and have used APL on a number of different machines.
bill
From: Paul Koning <paulkoning(a)comcast.net>
Subject: [cctalk] Re: APL-11 sources
Date: October 1, 2026 at 7:23:19 PM CDT
To: "cctalk(a)classiccmp.org" <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
Cc: Bill Gunshannon <bill.gunshannon(a)hotmail.com>
Reply-To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
On Oct 1, 2026, at 8:08 PM, Bill Gunshannon via
cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
On 10/1/2026 7:49 PM, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote:
I was just wandering through some old disk images
and spotted something I missed for years: a directory holding what looks like a set of
source files and build scripts for APL-11.
I have no idea where this came from or why I have it; while I have used APL I have not
used it on a PDP-11, nor ever installed it.
Is this something others already have that is a known to be good version, or should I go
dig through this and verify it, then archive it properly?
I would imagine it is the one distributed by DECUS. I have a copy here
somewhere but I, too, never got around to getting it working. And, yes,
I know and have used APL on a number of different machines.
Hard to say. The source files don't have copyright headers on them at all, but there
is an "apl11s.doc" file with a DEC copyright; it seems to be a
"support" manual that discusses the internals.
paul