> 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
