The date to go by on the SHARP APL "in-house" offering would be the rough date of the Xerox install in Webster, NY. As I recall, Xerox was getting uppity about paying huge time-sharing bills, and was threatening to leave, although I don't remember where they were planning to leave to. Ian made the decision to turn SHARP APL into a generally available in-house offering at that point.
Bob Devon McCormick wrote: > 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 >> > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
