APL86 Photographic Review (captioned photographs)

Transcribed from the printed issue; not yet reviewed. Read it in the PDF of the issue, page 52

[Photograph, p.52: men on ladders fitting out the STSC stand.] Preparing for the big day.

[Photograph: the upper exhibition floor, crowded.] A view of the upper exhibition floor.

[Photograph: Julia Allen behind a table heaped with furled parasols.] Julia Allen of the BCS distributes APL parasols to the delegates.

[Photographs, p.53.] A rare view of the APL86 registration desk during a quiet period.

Anthony Camacho introduces Ken Iverson at the opening plenary session.

Ken Iverson in the APL jungle; in his presentation of Core APL Ken described the features fundamental to his vision of the core of the APL language.

[Photographs, p.54.] Neil Mitchison and Manuel Alfonseca propose the motion ‘APL is not yet suitable for AI’ in one of the APL86 debates.

Neil’s excellent arguments fail to convince the audience, and the motion is narrowly defeated.

Leo Gromer seconds Jim Brown in successfully opposing the motion.

[Photographs, p.55.] Romilly Cocking, Timo Seppala and Henri Brudzewski confer during the panel discussion ‘APL and the Entrepreneur’. Valerie Lusmore was also on the panel, but is out of picture.

Christine Edginton surprises Dick Bowman with a cake for his birthday. Christine headed the conference organisation team from the BCS, and was largely responsible for the smooth running of APL86.

Philip Goacher chairs the panel discussion on APL implementations. Seated around Phil are James Wheeler (STSC), Luan Thomson (MicroAPL), Bob Bernecky (IPSA), John Scholes (Dyadic Systems) and Jim Brown (IBM). Now wouldn’t it be interesting to get that little group to write an APL interpreter together?

[Photographs, p.56.] Dick Bowman seems a little surprised to have his dinner interrupted by a flower-wielding gorilla. The odd creature read a birthday poem for Dick and then presented him with an arrow from his quiver.

The real ale evening and the Pimm’s party were augmented by boules and croquet on the bowling green. Naturally, the French team were unbeatable at boules, and I gave up trying to beat Adrian Smith at croquet sometime after one o’clock in the morning!

Alan Graham’s contribution to APL86 extended beyond teaching us APL2. He is seen here holding up an APL symbol during a game of ‘APL Name That Tune’, in which two teams had to identify the symbols appropriate to popular songs.

[Photographs, p.57: a banquet table; an award presentation; two men laughing over a card.] Dick Bowman introduces Bob McLaughlin, the after-dinner speaker.

John Myrna (right) presents SIGAPL’s outstanding achievement to APL award to the three people who pioneered the development of the APL standard. The recipients were Raymond Tisserand (left) who until recently convened the ISO Working Group, Alex Morrow, the editor of the standard, and Clark Wiedmann, who initiated the ANSII group’s involvement.

Paul Chapman and Ed Cherlin share some APL Trivia.

[Photographs, p.58: diners laughing; Bob McLaughlin speaking; a computer handed over; a large “APL in Action” card presented on stage.] Bob McLaughlin (right), the President of the British Computer Society, proves to be a brilliant stand-up comic during his banquet speech.

Jonny Osterman gratefully receives his prize Atari computer from MicroAPL’s Richard Nabavi.

Dick Bowman presents John Carpenter with a memento of APL86. John, who will be organising APL87 in Dallas next year, was heard to comment “Well, it’s pretty small by Dallas standards”!