APL4Amiga

Short:        A Programming Language interpreter, prerelease
Author:       mcain@advtech.uswest.com (Michael Cain), Amiga port by uploader
Uploader:     haubi geocities com (Stefan Haubenthal)
Type:         dev/lang
Architecture: m68k-amigaos

This is APL\11, an APL interpreter for the UNIX operating 
system.  The interpreter is written in C and the source code
is freely available.  The code is reasonably portable, sub-
ject to several restrictions including interchangeable 
pointers and ints.  Portability is discussed in more detail 
in the manual included with this distribution.  

APL\11 has a relatively long history.  The original program 
was written by Ken Thompson at Bell Laboratories, apparently
in the days before Version 6 UNIX.  That version of the 
interpreter was extensively modified at Purdue University, 
and has been included on the Berkeley distribution tapes 
subject to the requirement that you have a UNIX source 
license.  

Early in '92, I acquired a 386sx, a copy of Linus Torvalds' 
linux, and a copy of Bellcore's MGR windowing software.  A 
little voice in the back of my head said "This multitasking 
virtual-memory windowed system is nice, and if it had APL it
would be just about perfect!"  There's no accounting for 
taste.  After asking USENET, it was apparent that no other 
source-code available APL interpreters for UNIX had been 
written.  I had a legal copy of the APL\11 source which had 
followed me from Bell Labs to Bellcore and on to U S WEST.  

After a lot of nagging, AT&T licensed the source code to 
U S WEST, including the right to sublicense it without the 
old UNIX source license requirement (big companies don't 
seem to understand "just give it away").  I've cleaned it 
up, fixed several errors, written some new documentation, 
reformatted a lot of the old Purdue documentation, and added
a little additional functionality.  It's available for 
general use.  

I plan to provide support for the interpreter as my personal
time and interests permit (somewhere after wife, kids, house
maintenance and building a new piano bench).  The normal 
distribution channel will be the ftp archive at wat-
serv1.waterloo.edu.  If you are actively using APL\11, send 
me a note.  E-mail should be sent to mcain@adv-
tech.uswest.com.  Bug reports are welcome, although I can't 
promise how soon they'll get fixed.  Patches that fix bugs 
are even more welcome, and will get more prompt attention.