APL\360

[Lee Courtney]

Norman,

Same here, but archived at the CHM Software Preservation site:
http://www.softwarepreservation.org/projects/apl

If there is anything you have that is missing from the above site I'd love
to add it. Please drop me an email.

BTW my Dad was one of the first users of the original 2 cassette MCM-70 in
the US. We had one at home, along with a selectric terminal that we used
(from 1969 on) to access APL on a mainframe. Fun days. His MCM machine is
on display at CHM.

Lee Courtney

On Thu, Jan 14, 2021 at 6:28 PM Norman Jaffe via cctalk <
cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:

> I remember colleagues competing for the most 'interesting' one-liner in
> APL that actually did something useful, in university.
> I wrote several different kinds of simulator, one of which generated APL
> code on the fly that was then executed... plus a database-or-two.
> I've been actively collecting APL memorabilia and books for years now...
> if I could find an MCM/70 it would be awesome...
>
> From: "cctalk" <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
> To: "cctalk" <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
> Sent: Thursday, January 14, 2021 6:22:39 PM
> Subject: Re: APL\360
>
> On 1/14/21 5:44 PM, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote:
> > I was just poking around the computerhistory.org website, searching for
> Knuth stuff.
> >
> > The second or third hit when I search for "Knuth" is this one:
> https://computerhistory.org/blog/the-apl-programming-language-source-code/
> . It's not just about APL, it actually has a downloadable copy of the
> source code. And it points to an executable version, apparently a packaged
> up Hercules running that code.
> >
> > Nice. I'll have to give it a try.
>
>
> I recall Neil Lincoln (he of CDC/ETA) relating that he taught APL to his
> kids and his wife (APL was pretty much a natural for the STAR) as a
> first programming language.
>
> I took some time to learn it fairly well, but never really had any
> opportunity to use it much, so it's gone into the memory dustbin of old
> never-used languages of my brain.
>
> A co-worker back when would never use the name of the book or the
> abbreviation. He always referred to it as "that Iverson language" or
> "TIL".
>
> And it's comparatively easy to write short, perfectly opaque code in
> APL; probably more so than other common languages.
>
> --Chuck
>


-- 
Lee Courtney
+1-650-704-3934 cell