General Correspondence
Vector 2:1, page 5
Transcribed from the printed issue; not yet reviewed. Read it in the PDF of the issue, page 5
This section of VECTOR is reserved for communications of a general nature. Letters which require a high technical knowledge of APL or contain APL code usually appear in the Technical Section. Please note the requirements listed on the inside front cover. The editor reserves the right to edit letters unless the author states that a letter is to be published in full or not at all.
Sir: Many of us promote the benefits of APL among committed Cobollers, Pascallers and Fortanners and on the whole have very little success. A valuable weapon in such campaigning would be a graph plotting the cost of a job against the number of runs and showing an APL curve and curves for other languages on the same set of axes. The cost of course would be the sum of the program production and run charges.
I have been trying to collect some back of the envelope figures from my own experience and that of my acquaintances. It is surprising how very rarely any comparative estimating is ever thoroughly done. Most jobs are allocated to resources according to what is available or to who wants (or can be persuaded) to do the job. I would be glad to write an article for VECTOR about such comparisons, and would be grateful for descriptions and estimates on any job that has been estimated for APL and any other language.
If such a graph could be drawn (it will depend on whether the points plotted fall nearly enough on a line), it would be a very valuable weapon in the hands of those trying to get APL's virtues recognised. Please send comparative figures to me at [address omitted].
Yours faithfully,
Anthony Camacho,\ [address omitted]
(Editor: We would also like to widen the debate to include those who may not be convinced of APL's merits. If your evidence is more qualitative than quantitative, why not submit it for publication in VECTOR.)
Sir: Please find enclosed my solution to the latest VECTOR competition. By the way, I consider VECTOR now the most interesting APL periodical, so keep up the good work!
Yours sincerely,
Heinz Reutersberg,\ Cologne Reinsurance Company,\ P.O. Box 10 80 16,\ D-5000 Cologne.
Sir: For years now I'm interested in computers and as for languages APL is my favourite. I do not yet have my own computer — they are a bit expensive, especially those which run APL. But now I'm student of Mathematics at the University of Patras, we have a big mainframe — a UNIVAC 1100/60 — which runs APL and I have the opportunity to learn and program with APL.
But I have found problems learning the language due to the shortage of books at the University library and the poor manual for UNIVAC's manual. I now have a book — Applied APL Programming by Wilbur LePage — but I want to have also other sources of information about APL. So when I read about VECTOR in another British magazine, I decided to write in order to get more information.
I'm the only APL user in our University, but now I have managed to get some students interested in APL, I don't want them to have the same problems that I had. Your magazine would be a precious help.
Yours sincerely,
Savas Pavlides,\ [address omitted]\ Greece.
(Editor: Keep up the good work in spreading the gospel at the University of Patras; at least you shouldn't have complaints about the funny Greek symbols! Perhaps the rest of the Greek APL community will get in touch with you. You may find the APL booklist gives you some more ideas for useful books. I haven't found any other British magazines referring to VECTOR, so you must read them more thoroughly than me!)
Sir: You've published a couple of fine puzzles in the January and May isues: easy enough for me to try; challenging enough to keep me going for a while. Here's what I've gotten. I can't wait to see other solutions. Thanks to all who have contributed to putting out VECTOR.
Yours,
Curtis A. Jones,\ [address omitted]\ California.
(Note to technical editors: re Dick Bowman's letter in Vector Vol.1 No.4, could you try to make the competitions less interesting or next year we'll have no candidates for the committee.)