Preparing for Swansea

Transcribed from the printed issue; not yet reviewed. Read it in the PDF of the issue, page 4

APL in Business is intended to be a hard-working 3 days! The objective is simple: to prepare you (and your staff) for the future of APL. In a nutshell, this means learning to program your APL alongside Client-Server Architectures, Graphical User Interfaces, and in co-operation with all the wonderful software that populates the Microsoft universe.

The transition from the traditional APL environments (mainframes or stand-alone DOS machines) will not be an easy one, so get started now! Read Morten Kromberg (page 114) on Client-Server — Morten will be sharing a Wednesday afternoon session with Microsoft — and follow up with Gene McDonnell’s lovely tale of Client-Server in action (page 110). Read about a common approach to the Windows GUI (page 64), then spend an afternoon playing with it (choose Dyalog/W or PLUS III) on the Tuesday. Read George MacLeod (page 83) on the tricky details of high-quality graphics, and see the product in action (or maybe even buy it) at the evening street market.

Learn the latest techniques for handling time-series, control charts, actuarial problems, asset management — and then try out your new-found skills in the evenings (the labs will be open as late as you want them to be) with experts on hand to guide you. But remember: this is not a jolly! It has taken me over a year to get comfortable with this new world of Windows programmimg, so start reading now, absorb what you can, and go to Swansea prepared.