Michael Dykman asked:
>
> Can anyone remind me in which year the source code for the J engine was
> first released as open source?
Since you are asking about the *first* release:
The original J Versions (not "Releases") 4 to 7 (1992 - 1993) are open
source, with a "2-clause BSD style" license (which I much prefer over
the current GPL-3 license):
/* J-Source Version 4.1 - COPYRIGHT 1992 Iverson Software Inc. */
/* 33 Major Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5S 2K9, (416) 925 6096 */
/* */
/* J-Source is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind. */
/* */
/* J-Source Version 4.1 license agreement: You may use, copy, and */
/* modify the source. You have a non-exclusive, royalty-free right */
/* to redistribute source and executable files. */
You will find this also exactly time-stamped in the "status.txt" file:
Changes in Version 4.1, 1992 2 2
[...]
J source made available
Along with 4.1, Roger's "Implementation of J" documentation was made
available (not for free until "recently"); all the documentation
relating to the J back then, in particular the DoJ, existed only as
printed booklets and had had to be ordered from ISI.
The initial set of engine test cases were released six weeks later, with Jv4.2.
Occasionally, I still run J version 5.1 and 7 binaries on the very same
DECsystem I learned J on:
-rwxrwxr-x 1 neitzel staff 413696 Oct 1 1992 /usr/local/bin/j
-rwxrwxr-x 1 neitzel staff 307200 Mar 11 1994 /usr/local/bin/j7
I did some J archaeology just a few days ago and gathered all my
early J stuff together onto my current desktop machine. This is:
src kits: Versions 4.1, 5.1, 6.2, 7
I have the DOS binaries for J Version 2 (the APL-90 Copenhagen version,
aka "j90", the first version released at all), 2.9, 5.1, 6.2, and 7.
All J Version 2--7 executables could be copied and distributed when not
made for commercial advantage.
The Univ. of Waterloo FTP archive run by L. J. Dickey used to serve as
the central distribution point for J binaries, source, and extra stuff
back then. That original archive apparantly doesn't exist anymore, but
http://www.sigapl.org/Archives/waterloo_archive/index.html
exists as "some" copy. You need some perseverance to navigate around
broken links, though, and find the 6.2/7 srcs and binaries there:
http://www.sigapl.org/Archives/waterloo_archive/j/early_j/index.html
If you happen to have an executable for J Version 3.x (in particular 3.0,
the only version having the verbs
m. Mean
n. Normalize
s. Spread (STD)
), that would be most appreciated. (Again: J *Version* 3, not J Rel. 3).
Martin
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