Papers for APL 86

Transcribed from the printed issue; not yet reviewed. Read it in the PDF of the issue, page 18

The response so far to the call for papers has been excellent (over one hundred abstracts by mid-July). Not all of these will be suitable and of course we need more.

We asked for abstracts early because we have to plan the outline of the conference programme now. The plan has to be more or less fixed by the end of August. Things can be adjusted to accomodate papers whose abstracts are received early even if their topics are at the edges of our themes.

We will continue to accept abstracts and drafts and papers until there is no time left to get the refereeing done, but every week you delay increases the chances of your paper failing to get a place. We will be sending out details of layout and a style guide to authors in September and the current date for receipt of the papers is 1 November 1985. This is to allow our refereeing team time to deal with everything thoroughly and where appropriate to ask authors to amend their work to suit the neds of the conference. This activity must be completed over Christmas so that final acceptances can all be made for 10 January 1986. Anything, however good, you write after then will only find a place if someone else drops out.

If you hope to produce a paper, it will help your chances and our planning greatly if you let us know soon. Please send your name and address to me or to BISL Conference Department (APL 86) at the BCS and if you cannot devise an abstract let us know the subject or the field within which you intend to find a subject.

I believe there is something of interest to other APLers in most APL projects and that all you have to do is to find an effective way to present it. We are putting together a programme which will help all delegates to improve their own performance in APL and believe this is best done by sharing and discussing typical and ordinary applications on run-of-the-mill equipment as well as learning about work on next years machine or interpreter. Do not excuse yourself from sending in a paper on the grounds that your work offers nothing new.

We also want some controversy to add spice to the conference. Do you have a strongly held view which could be provocatively put and perhaps provocatively responded to? Please let us know soon if you have; we would like to include you in one of our debates.

We are organising better demonstration facilities than usual for APL 86 because live demonstrations are both more entertaining and more valuable to the APLer. It is easier to follow a demonstration on the screen than on a succession of slides or overhead projector foils as it shows more details of the sequence of events and should allow the demonstrator to show any detail of any function easily. The audience comes because it wants to learn about what you have done and how you did it and if it likes what it learns may want to adapt, emulate or improve on some or all of what is demonstrated. Do you have a good demonstration? We would like to hear of it.

The conference slogan is “APL in Action” and its other themes are “APL and its Environment” and “The APL Notation”. We need to be able to advertise the conference as containing so much that will be valuable to APL users that employers will want to send everyone who can be spared. Keep 7-11 July 1986 free and persuade your colleagues to book their holidays at other times next year. Get them to send their papers in too. And help us to make it the best ever international APL conference. Send us your name and a promise a hope or a threat!

Anthony Camacho\ Programme Chairman APL 86