Public Domain Interpreter (Proposal)

Transcribed from the printed issue; not yet reviewed. Read it in the PDF of the issue, page 127

Three meetings were held at APL 86 to discuss this project – on 9 July at 5.30, on 10 July at 5.45 and on 11 July over lunch. The main things that were agreed at the first meeting were:

Object

to promote the use of APL

Preamble

At present anyone persuaded of the desirability of using APL cannot try it on a computer without significant expenditure. This barrier can be surmounted. The combined resources of the APL Associations with Vendor support will suffice to raise the £30,000 ($45,000) or so needed.

With that barrier removed it will be worth mounting a sustained campaign (in particular in education) to take advantage of the new low threshhold cost of trying APL. To do this effectively will require further finance, the amount of which has not yet been determined.

Main steps to provide a public domain APL interpreter which will run on school and home computers without enhancements (BBC micro, Apple II, Commodore 64, PCs and look-alikes etc.).

1. Raise sufficient financial backing:
   1. for the interpreter
   2. to advertise it widely
   3. document it beautifully
   4. distribute it to all who want it
2. The interpreter is to be simplified ISO (conforming in all respects for features that are included). It will have to be written to save space at the expense of speed, and in a language which makes the job of porting it onto the various machines easy. Thus it will be too slow to compete with commercial APLs. Paul Chapman could begin to write the interpreter in October 1986 and estimates that it will take about five months to do it.

At the second meeting many people volunteered to help and a committee of five was elected to manage the project:

The interpreter is to run on the commonest home and education microcomputers such as those above and such other machines as are proposed to us as worth including. It is to include as much of ISO APL as Paul can manage in the space. The interpreter will have to be written to conserve space at the expense of speed, and for some machines may have to be supplied in EPROM to leave a usable workspace. Paul’s target is to fit the code into 25K bytes. There may be a problem on some machines with the character set, so the interpreter will be written in such a way as to allow either simple porting using an ASCII symbol set, or, with more work, provision of the APL character set on selected machines.

The timescale is very tight. Paul could start work in October 1986 if we have sufficient money raised by then, and would expect to have a working interpreter with porting instructions by May 1987. It may even be possible to show it at Dallas!

The two Chairmen were put in charge of fund-raising. Plainly they have to raise about half of the required total by September if we are able to commit ourselves to support Paul for the period needed to do the work. The two chairmen were also to set up an organisation which would make the best use of the funds raised.

The Education Officers have a harder task to perform, and probably are harder pressed to do it in the time than the fundraisers. They are to plan approaches to the educational world in the old and new worlds which will get the new interpreter into use. It may be desirable to do this through the children direct as well as via the established institutions and the computer manufacturers. We should obviously try to get manufacturers to include APL in the box with every new computer. The major task will be to produce educational material so that teachers who can be persuaded to try APL don’t have each to perform the daunting task of writing their own. The costs of each proposal need careful estimating to allow decisions to be made about which to carry out. Offers and suggestions welcome!

The committee feels sure that everyone who uses APL will want to see this project succeed. Please contribute as much as you can afford.

I Appeal to Members: International APL (I-APL)¶

You can’t persuade people APL is wonderful without showing them. You can’t show them because it won’t run on their home or school computer. End this frustration! Here is an opportunity not to be missed. Now you can really do something to help the spread of APL – support I-APL!

The I-APL Project is in two parts:

1. Write a public domain ‘International APL’ and distribute it just for the cost of copying. The software will be free and unprotected – even the source code!
2. Promote it everywhere, particularly in education.

It will be based on and will conform to the ISO Standard (hence the name) and will be as complete as possible while running on many kinds of school and home microcomputer (BBC microcomputer, Apple, Atari, MSX, Commodore 64, Sinclair Spectrum 48K, PC and many others).

We intend to start work in October 1986 and to finish by May 1987. We need £30,000 ($45,000) and we need it NOW. A committee is raising funds on both sides of the Atlantic. Ed Cherlin (editor of APL News) is Chairman for the new world and Anthony Camacho (secretary of the British APL Association) is Chairman for the old world.

Subscribe and you can also have the opportunity to test the first release of I-APL. The suggested subscription is one or two years subscription to your own APL group. How much do you care about APL? How much is it worth to you?

Send your subscriptions to your local group to forward to us or direct to Ed or Anthony. Make cheques payable to I-APL. Enclose the form below or a photocopy if you want the first release.

Yes: let me know as soon as the first release interpreter is available for my computer.

I enclose a donation of: . . . . . . . . . . . .
Name . . . . . . . . . . . .
Address . . . . . . . . . . . .
Postcode or zip . . . . . . . . . . . .
Make, model and memory capacity of computer . . . . . . . . . . . .

SEND TO

Ed Cherlin:
[address omitted]
or Anthony Camacho:
[address omitted]

Ed Cherlin and Anthony Camacho, Chairmen