The Education Vector

Transcribed from the printed issue; not yet reviewed. Read it in the PDF of the issue, page 17

The Education Vector¶

October 1993

Editor Alan Mayer

This Education Vector has been reprinted from VECTOR Vol.10 No.2. VECTOR is the Quarterly Journal of the British APL Association. For more information about the British APL Association, please contact: Anthony Camacho, [address and telephone number omitted].

Contents¶

Dr. Alan Mayer
European Business Management School
University College of Swansea
Singleton Park
Swansea SA2 8PP Wales, UK

Ysgol Rheolaeth Busnes Ewropeaidd
Parc Singleton,
Abertawe SA2 8PP

Tel: 0792-205678 Ext.4274 Fax: 0792-295626 Email: A.D.MAYER@SWANSEA.AC.UK

Editorial¶

Well, APL93 has come and gone. Many congratulations to the organisers in Toronto for a first class conference. A large contingent from the British APL Association was present, and several members gave papers. One of the spin-offs was an agreement between several of the local APL groups to exchange newsletters and where appropriate to reprint material. This type of cooperation can only be beneficial to the APL community throughout the world, and we look forward to fruitful collaboration in the future. If any other editors of APL newsletters would like to join us, please contact me and we will be pleased to welcome you aboard!

APL94 will be in Belgium in September 1994 — more of that at a later date, but if anyone would like a copy of the first announcement and "call for papers", please drop me a line (or electronic equivalent).

Meanwhile two BAA events are worth noting. There is a GUI workshop in London on 26th November 1993, cost £75, details from the BAA Secretary, Duncan Pearson ([telephone number omitted]). In July 1994 there is an International Workshop "APL in Business" at Swansea University, jointly sponsored by the BAA and the European Business Management School, Swansea, for which most of our readers will have received an Announcement — I will gladly forward details to anyone who wants them. The continued development of GUI's, and the general standardization of interfaces between packages, make APL an invaluable ingredient in any serious business computing venture in the 1990's. These two events are designed to help business people make informed choices — and to realise what they are missing if they reject APL!

In this issue, as promised I have reviewed "Introduction to APL*PLUS/PC" by Maurice Dalois. My note on Cows and Bulls prompted Ted Emms to do a lot of work and produce a creditable effort at solving the 4 by 4 problem. I have included his (substantial!) solution in this edition, and note that he in turn has issued a challenge — can anyone improve on his coding of the tree structure which underlies his solution? Ted was restricted by his use of first-generation APL, but we will be interested in solutions using nested arrays too. Finally, Norman Thomson has written a short article on J, a language which some regard as the logical successor to APL, some regard as a valuable alternative, and others reject as too perplexing to be of any consequence! As usual, I await your views with interest.

If anyone would like to receive the rest of the journal Vector (144 pages!), from which Education Vector is taken, application forms for membership of the BAA are available from Rowena Small, [address omitted]. UK subscription is currently £12 (students £6).

Please note the change in my email address (Edvec front cover) — the old one will work for some time, but the new one is preferable.