Case Studies: an Invitation

Transcribed from the printed issue; not yet reviewed. Read it in the PDF of the issue, page 79

Let me begin by stating my personal objectives as editor of this section of the Journal:

• to include in each issue a clear and concise account of a self-contained (but not necessarily simple) APL system, or of some specific aspect of a system (such as the use of colour) which readers can appreciate ‘out of context’.
• to collect such accounts from as wide a range of areas as I possibly can.
• to stress ideas and methodology rather than technological cleverness. I anticipate a rather low percentage of actual APL code.
• to include as much illustrative material (if possible photographs) as company sensitivity allows.

In general I am happy to play the journalist and do the actual writing bit, but if any reader has an account which roughly fits the above outline, please do not hesitate to send it in. My standards for such copy are set very low indeed viz:

• typescript preferred, but legible handwriting quite acceptable if the content is right.
• diagrams decently drawn in black ink (assuming you want me to paste them straight in to the final version).
• function listings as good as you can get them. Please use six lines per inch rather then eight on IBM dot-matrix printers, and put a new ribbon in!
• colour is not (as yet) reproducible, so make sure any graphics are acceptable in monochrome.

In short if it’s sufficiently interesting I’ll accept almost anything — don’t let the effort of ‘writing up’ put you off. Since there were no contributions for this first issue I have taken the liberty of contributing an article myself. I found myself more than willing to accept it.