It'd be grossly inaccurate and misleading to use 1979 or 1980 as the date for SHARP APL. At that time the dominant delivery vehicle for APL was timesharing, and thousands (tens of thousands?) of users inside and outside of IPSA had access to SHARP APL. I don't know what you mean by "earlier date" but it should be 196x. My guess is that it wouldn't be much later than November 1966, when APL\360 first became available anywhere. Roger Moore, an IPSA vice president, was involved in the implementation of APL\360 and knew a good thing when he saw one.
----- Original Message ----- From: Devon McCormick <[email protected]> Date: Monday, August 31, 2009 19:05 Subject: Re: [Jgeneral] Anniversary To: General forum <[email protected]> > Joey - according to Wikipedia, Sharp APL was available as an "in- > house"product in 1980. This raises the question of what > date to use - that of the > internal system or one publicly available. I've been > tending to the earlier > date. > > On Mon, Aug 31, 2009 at 1:22 AM, Joey K Tuttle <[email protected]> > wrote: > > Devon, > > > > Nice that you're doing this. > > > > The IBM 5100 was APL.SV rather than APL\360 - it was indeed in 1975. > > I think one of the astonishing things about the 5100 is that > the IBM > > Rochester department that developed it had only 8 regular employees. > > Another interesting fact is that when the 5110 came out with disk > > storage, a 3.5 inch technology from Sony (that showed up 10 years > > later in PCs) was rejected because it was "too far out" - > instead the > > already in use IBM 8 inch floppy was used... > > > > Sharp APL came considerably earlier than 1979. Actually in > 1978 or 79 > > Sharp APL had dial up access in Moscow - as well as many other > places> around the world. STSC's first time sharing service was > run on a > > machine at I.P. Sharp Associates, the development of the APL file > > system was a shared project. Considerable history of the Sharp > > network (along with contemporary other networks) can be found at > > http://www.rogerdmoore.ca/ the wikipedia page > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I._P._Sharp_Associates is interesting > > and partly accurate ... > > > > There is active interest in APL and time lines like this at > > http://www.computerhistory.org/ (whose server has been down > today...)> > > - joey > > > > > > At 00:03 -0400 2009/08/31, Devon McCormick wrote: > > >Thanks for the reminder - and a belated happy birthday to J! > > > > > >This is a good intro for something I'm working on for the Ken > Iverson page > > >for the ACM's Turing Award winners web pages. There's a > section I'm on > > now > > >for APL systems in chronological order. I've asked APL > vendors to > > >contribute a few lines about their respective systems but > it's mostly > > meant > > >as an historical perspective. > > > > > >I'd like some help with dates and any systems I've > missed. For instance, > > >Wikipedia mentions systems by Burroughs, CDC, and other mainframe > > companies > > >with whose APLs I am unfamiliar. > > > > > >Here's what I have so far: > > > > > >[1964] I.P. Sharp Associates: developed early packet > switching computer > > >networking system known as IPSANET, and a global e-mail > system. Purchased > > >in 1987[?] by Reuters. > > >[1966] APL\360 > > >[1967] APL\1130 > > >[1969] Scientific Time-Sharing Corporation > > >[1973] APL.SV: introduces shared variables. > > >[1973] 8008-based MCM/70 > > >[1975?] APL\360 on the 5100 > > >[?] Burroughs APL\700 > > >[1977] 8080-based "small APL" called EMPL > > >[1977] Z-80-based TIS APL > > >[1978] PDP / LSI-11 implementmentation of APL > > >[1979] Sharp APL > > >[1981?] IBM VSAPL > > >[1982?] APL.68000 for Motorola 68000 > > >[1983?] Analogic's APL machine > > >[1982] APL*PLUS PC > > >[1983?] NARS2000: open source APL interpreter written > by Bob Smith. > > >[1983?] MicroAPL's APLX > > >[1984] IBM APL2 > > >[1985] Dyalog > > >[1988] Timothy A. Budd's "An APL compiler" > > >[1987] Rationalized APL > > >[1988] A+ > > >[1989] J Software > > >[1990] ACORN: APL to C On Real Numbers - a prototype APL to C > compiler.> >[1993] K > > >[1995] APL2000 > > >[?] APL to C# translator from Causeway Graphical Systems > > >[?] Bob Bernecky's APEX compiler > > > > > >Any help, especially with references, would be > appreciated. As you can > > see, > > >some of them - I'm looking at you "Sharp" - are particularly > difficult to > > >pin down. > > > > > >Thanks, > > > > > >Devon > > > > > >On Sun, Aug 30, 2009 at 8:07 PM, PackRat > <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > >> Three days ago, August 27 (about 4pm), was the 20th > anniversary of the > > >> "birth" of J > <http://www.jsoftware.com/jwiki/Essays/Incunabulum>, and > > >> it has grown and developed ever since. I don't > know if the developers > > >> of J consider that the "birthdate", but it makes a > lot of sense to me. > > >> Happy birthday, J! > > >> > > >> Harvey > > >> > > >> ------------------------------------------------------ > ---------------- > > >> For information about J forums see > http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm> >> > > > > > > > > > > > >-- > > >Devon McCormick, CFA > > >^me^ at acm. > > >org is my > > >preferred e-mail > > >-------------------------------------------------------------- > -------- > > >For information about J forums see > http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm> > > --------------------------------------------------------------- > ------- > > For information about J forums see > http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm> > > > > -- > Devon McCormick, CFA > ^me^ at acm. > org is my > preferred e-mail > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > ----- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
