The Education Vector

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

The Education Vector¶

January 1994

Editor Alan Mayer

This Education Vector has been reprinted from VECTOR Vol.10 No.3. 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¶

by Alan Mayer

Happy New Year and welcome once again to Education Vector. 1994 sees the tenth anniversary of the first edition of Vector in May 1984, when the British APL Association made the "quantum leap" from a simple newsletter to the professionally produced (and regularly appearing!) journal that is now read throughout the world. Education Vector first appeared two years later, in October 1986, under the editorship of Norman Thomson — who has maintained a close (and valued) interest through the years, and is now contributing articles on J, one of which appears in this edition.

During 1994 the British APL Association plans to introduce another journal, dedicated to papers on original, serious applications of APL, J and other array-orientated languages. The journal was announced last year as "The APL Review", but this title came in for some criticism at APL93, and a more formal title has been adopted: "Journal of Array Processing Languages and Algorithms". All papers will be fully-refereed and edited by an international team of APL experts in a wide variety of fields, such as statistics, econometrics, engineering, actuarial applications, simulation, operational research and so on. People who use APL professionally can learn from each other, even when their fields of study or application are very different. The new journal aims to draw all of these fields together and provide a vehicle for inter-disciplinary communication.

Linked with the launch of the journal is the special International Workshop "APL in Business" at the European Business Management School, Swansea University, in July. Jointly sponsored by the British APL Association and EBMS, under coordinators Adrian Smith (Chairman) and Alan Sykes (Programme Chair), this will use the common medium of APL to draw together the inter-related themes of Finance, Operational Research and Statistics.

In September (11th to 15th), the Annual International Conference, APL94, takes place in Antwerp, and authors are invited to submit papers on APL — the language, its environment, its practice and its applications. The Programme Chairman is Alain Delmotte, [address omitted].

In this edition of Education Vector, I am pleased once again to include a substantial contribution from Walter Spunde, who is no stranger to our readers, and one from Joseph De Kerf, who is the Conference Chairman of APL94.

We are always keen to hear of local initiatives to promote APL. A "first" to my knowledge is an APL Class advertised by Bill McLean (also well-known to our readers) through the University of Glasgow Adult Continuing Education scheme. Well done Bill! Perhaps there are others out there who could promote APL in this way.

The British APL Association is always looking for new members. Application forms are available from Rowena Small, [address omitted]. UK subscription is currently £12 (students £6).