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 <[email protected]>
> Subject: [cctalk] APL-11 sources
> Date: October 1, 2026 at 6:49:36 PM CDT
> To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
> Reply-To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
> <[email protected]>
>
>
> 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 <[email protected]>
> Subject: [cctalk] Re: APL-11 sources
> Date: October 1, 2026 at 7:08:37 PM CDT
> To: [email protected]
> Reply-To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
> <[email protected]>
>
>
>
>
> 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 <[email protected]>
> Subject: [cctalk] Re: APL-11 sources
> Date: October 1, 2026 at 7:23:19 PM CDT
> To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
> Cc: Bill Gunshannon <[email protected]>
> Reply-To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
> <[email protected]>
>
>
>
>
>> On Oct 1, 2026, at 8:08 PM, Bill Gunshannon via cctalk
>> <[email protected]> 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
