APL-Ication

Transcribed from the printed issue; not yet reviewed. Read it in the PDF of the issue, page 19

The Practical State-of-the-Art APL Conference

University of Kent
Canterbury, England
28-30 September 1988

The British APL Association is pleased to announce this three day conference to be held in the beautiful Cathedral City of Canterbury in September 1988.

APL-Ication is designed to be complementary to APL88, being held in Sydney, Australia from 1-5 February and will be an exciting, outward looking conference of interest to all APL practitioners - both newcomers to APL and those with more experience in the use of the language. We extend an invitation to other APL club members, particularly those in Europe, to become involved in APL-Ication by submitting papers, offering presentations and by attending the conference.

Canterbury¶

The City's roots can be traced back to a prehistoric iron age settlement, but the story of Canterbury really starts after the Roman invasion of AD 43. Then known as Durovernum Cantiacorum, it was a trading centre on the main route between London and Europe. After successive occupation by the Vikings and the Danes, the Normans arrived and it was they who began building the Cathedral in 1070. In 1170 Archbishop Thomas Becket was murdered in the Cathedral. Pilgrims from all over Britain and Europe were soon travelling to Becket's shrine, a typical pilgrimage being recorded in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Despite the later attentions of Henry VIII and Cromwell the Cathedral survives to this day as the 'Mother Church of English Christianity', and is famed for its collection of stained glass windows.

University of Kent¶

The conference will be located at the University which overlooks the Cathedral City of Canterbury - a famous City, situated in the heart of the Kent , the county known as the 'Garden of England'. The University campus, opened in 1965, offers outstanding facilities for staging conferences, with on-site accommodation and social amenities. The University can be reached conveniently by road and rail. Canterbury is close to the motorway network affording rapid access to all parts of the UK and Europe via Dover, which is close by. The rail link to London also provides access from all parts of the country and from Heathrow and Gatwick airports.

APL-Ication¶

The conference has been designed to give a careful balance between the presentations given by invited speakers and contributed papers, with the accent on the practical application of APL in a variety of business disciplines. The conference will also look critically at the world of computing to see what lessons we might learn and how APL can be integrated into non-APL environments.

APL-Ication will have an international flavour, with contributions from overseas, particularly our APL colleagues in Europe. Anyone interested in presenting a paper should follow the instructions for submission given in the following Call for Papers.

Although there will be no formal exhibition, hospitality suites will be available for consultancies and vendors to meet delegates and to display their products, and time will be available in the lecture theatres for presentations of software and hardware for the APL user.

Further details of APL-Ication will be given in the next issue of Vector.

APL-Ication Conference¶

University of Kent
Canterbury, England
28-30 September 1988

Call for Papers¶

APL-Ication is a three-day conference being organised by the British APL Association, devoted to the topic of the Application of APL in Business. Who uses APL? Why do they use APL? What does the practitioner need to know to apply APL effectively? What changes to APL would make it more useful?

In addition to contributed papers, there will be a number of invited speakers from both within and without the APL world who will present papers and lead tutorial and discussion sessions. These speakers will detail experiences gained in non-APL as well as APL fields, beneficial to the APL professional.

Sessions currently planned include:

APL and Software Engineering.

Case Studies. Why was APL used? What benefits accrued? Will APL be used in similar situations again? What changes to APL would increase its value to such applications?

Teaching APL. What education is relevant to those using APL as a problem solving tool for business? How do we teach it?

APL and the Human Computer Interface.

APL and other systems. The use of APL to augment 'standard' packages and databases. Why in a multi-language system does APL always seem to be the one that bends?

Development and productivity tools for the APL professional.

Other programming languages, particularly functional programming and object oriented languages. What are they, and what are the implications for APL?

APL-Ication will be an exciting, outward looking conference of interest to all APL users at all levels. The event will be highly participative. No talk will exceed half an hour, and all sessions will be concluded by a panel discussion involving the presenters. 'Live' presentations to accompany papers will be encouraged by the provision of a wide range of computing and audio-visual equipment. The University of Kent has excellent facilities for both speakers and delegates.

Papers are welcome from outside the UK, particularly from Europe, as it is our aim to make APL-Ication a truly international event. We would like to share the experiences of using APL gained in the UK with our overseas colleagues and learn how they put APL to effective use in other countries.

It is important that we adhere strictly to a timetable for the submission of papers, leading to publication in the conference proceedings. This timetable has been carefully organised in order that work on your submission to APL-Ication will not interfere with your visit to APL88 next February.

Submission of Papers¶

Full draft papers, for consideration by a panel of referees, must be submitted by 15 January 1988. Four copies of the paper, which is to be in English and should not exceed 6000 words, must be submitted, together with:

a title, an abstract and a list of keywords for subject identification and classification,

a photograph and a short autobiography, and

a full description of the 'live' presentation and the equipment required.

Notification of the referees' decisions will be sent out on 1 March 1988. Authors of papers must provide final copies of their papers suitable for photo reproduction by 29 April 1988.

All papers accepted and received by the final submission deadline will be published in the Conference Proceedings. Other papers will be considered for publication in Vector.

It is intended that prizes will be awarded for the 'best' papers and presentations given at the conference.

Important Dates¶

For further details on the submission of papers, or if you would like to be on our mailing list to receive information about the conference, please contact:

BISL Conference Department (APL-Ication)
The British Computer Society
13 Mansfield Street
London W1M 0BP
England
UK

Telephone 01 637 0471

APL-Ication Organising Committee¶