News from Sustaining Members

Transcribed from the printed issue; not yet reviewed. Read it in the PDF of the issue, page 11

APL People Ltd¶

As this is a special, education issue of VECTOR, there will undoubtedly be those of you reading it who will not have seen a copy of VECTOR before and possibly not have had very much to do with APL before either. So let me take this opportunity to describe what APL People is all about for those of you who do not yet know us!

First and foremost we are a Company which specialises in supplying consultancy in APL, for which we use our own staff and the services of a growing number of freelance APL consultants. (Any freelance APL consultants wishing to be included on our register should contact Val or Jill in the first instance - number on back cover of this Vector).

Another service for which we are well known within the APL world is our APL employment agency through which we place people with APL skills in permanent jobs both in the UK and abroad. I'm sure you will all be encouraged to hear that the future has never been brighter for people seeking new jobs, especially those with two to five years' APL experience. We are making a conscious effort to expand this side of the business to place more people in jobs abroad and in the States. (Please take note all you employers out there - we're waiting to hear from you!) The current demand is very much for people with APL2 experience, and we are starting to be asked more and more whether we have any people who are familiar with C in addition to APL.

And finally, we also develop and market a range of software written in APL. This includes RDS, a relational database system, now also available on the PC, and our Production Engineering packages, PEFAC and MANTRAC. PEFAC, the multi-user estimating package, now interfaces with other Production Engineering packages written in Basic, and will be available running under Unix in the Spring.

Dyadic¶

Dyadic is pleased to announce the availability of Dyalog APL/386, a new version of Dyalog APL for the IBM PS/2 model 80, Compaq 386 and other Intel 80386-based computers.

Dyalog APL/386 runs on the IBM PS/2 Model 80; and on a wide range of 80386-based PC AT-compatible personal computers including those manufactured by Compaq, Wyse, Zenith, Olivetti, ITT and Texas Instruments. It also runs on IBM PC AT-compatible machines which have been 'turbocharged' with a 386 accelerator card such as the Intel INboard and Orchid Jet 386.

Dyalog APL/386 is a full implementation of Dyalog APL, but one that is specially configured for personal computers; and it includes support for standard PC keyboards, monitors and printers.

Not only is it a full second-generation APL with nested arrays, but Dyalog APL/386 supports very large objects and workspaces, up to a theoretical limit of 4 gigabytes!

Dyalog APL/386 uses 32-bit native 80386 code, and therefore takes full advantage of the 386 processor. Dyadic believes that as a result, Dyalog APL/386 outperforms all other APLs currently available for the PC. The following benchmarks were run on a 16MHz Compaq 386. Performance on the 20 MHz machine is even better.

Dyalog APL/386
'STSC' benchmarks: Compaq 386 with 80387 coprocessor 16MHz
(all figures are cpu seconds)

Dyalog APL/386 runs under SCO XENIX 386 System V Operating System which is available direct from Dyadic. In addition to supporting Dyalog APL, XENIX 386 provides a full 32-bit multi-user, multitasking environment; and unlike DOS, XENIX 386 releases the full potential of the Intel 80386 processor.

Dyalog APL/386 includes an interface to SCO CGI, a powerful device independent graphics development system, which is packaged with Xenix. It also includes a workspace containing business graphics functions for producing graphs, histograms, pie charts, titles and legends. The system supports standard PC displays, dot matrix printers, and other popular graphics devices.

Dyalog APL/386 Release 2 will include APL*PLUS/PC compatible full-screen functions designed to facilitate the transfer of APL*PLUS/PC applications to Dyalog APL.

Dyalog APL also supports SCO VP/ix, a system extension that permits multiple DOS and XENIX applications to be run concurrently from the system console. Character mode DOS applications can also be run from attached ASCII terminals.

This means that all the benefits of speed, size and functionality of Dyalog APL/386 can be obtained without sacrificing the ability to run DOS applications.

Dyalog APL/386 is priced at £995. SCO Xenix 386 Operating System costs £695.

Dyadic is pleased to welcome Janet Burton who has recently joined the Dyalog APL development team as a senior programmer.

MicroAPL Ltd¶

After five years at its Nine Elms premises, MicroAPL has decided to move. With effect from December 1 1987, we will be based at the South Bank Technopark. Here we will be close to nearly forty hi-tech companies, many of them developing exciting software and hardware products, in a building specially conceived by the South Bank Polytechnic to help leading-edge UK companies like MicroAPL gain from the synergy of close relations with each other and with the Polytechnic. The new address appears elsewhere in VECTOR, but it is:

MicroAPL Ltd.,
South Bank Technopark,
90 London Rd.,
LONDON SE1 6LN

...our new telephone number is (01) 922 8866 and the telex remains unchanged as 896885 IOTA.

On the product front, our entry level APL.68000 products are selling extremely well, especially in Europe. The recent price reductions to 99.95 (including VAT) for the Apple Macintosh, Commodore Amiga and Atari ST products has encouraged the introduction of a large number of new users to the delights of APL. The fact that a complete APL system (Atari ST and APL.68000) can be bought for a price which is similar to the price of the APL interpreter on other micros has not gone unnoticed in the APL community! Our free run-time policy on these small machines has stimulated the interest of APL software vendors in producing packages for these products.

The PC community has reacted enthusiastically to the APL.68000 implementation for the PC - MultiAPL. This hardware and software combination offers a particularly easy means of moving VSAPL applications onto the PC and the large amounts of RAM available (up to 4MB) free applications from the usual memory constraints on the PC.

Our users of Mirage-based machines may be interested to know that the move from the old factory has brought to our attention large amounts of second-hand stock and ex-demonstration equipment. When we have refurbished this equipment we will be circulating details. In the meantime if you think you might need APL terminals, printers (or even cheap cables!), why not give us a call?

More Mirage-based software is being released to try and tempt users away from APL. The latest language to appear is FORTH, which means that users now have a choice of nine programming languages to try. The Omnis database package will prove a powerful tool for many routine applications.

APL Impetus Ltd¶

Although APL Impetus Ltd was formed only in July this year, when it was decided that 'Impetus' no longer fitted into Boeing's product strategy, the product has been used by customers for 18 months and the concept goes back to 1976 when TABAPL, its mainframe timeshareing predecessor, was first marketed.

When the Impetus development was started in 1984, the challenge was to provide all the functionality of the mainframe product in a machine with only 640K memory. The successful result is based on APL*PLUS/PC, enhanced by 30 or so assembler routines for such crucial activities as formatting, scrolling and panning, and displaying without snow on colour and shaded monitors.

Demonstration diskettes are available for consultants and users who would like to know more about this alternative, APL-based, approach to solving those complex modelling problems which are beyond the scope of spreadsheets.

Mercia Software Ltd¶

APL*PLUS/PC Release 7 has just arrived and we are expecting a lot of interest from Release 6 users. Major new features include virtual workspaces, network sharing of APL files, monitoring function to keep track of execution time and a significantly improved graphics capability. Full details are available from Mercia.

APL development work has been concentrated on LOGOL, R.G. Brown's finished goods control system. Most of the effort has been going into writing graphics programs to illustrate the (often very sophisticated) statistical theory behind the system - turn lifeless figures into vital statistics as we say!

Cocking and Drury Ltd¶

Cocking & Drury have relocated their London office to 180 Tottenham Court Road. The move allows for further expansion and provides much improved public course facilities. Please refer to the Vendor Addresses list for the full address and telephone number. The Reading office address remains unchanged.

This year will see the launch of a new member of the APL*PLUS family of interpreters from STSC. The interpreter is designed for the new range of 80386 based personal computers, including the IBM PS/2 and the Compaq 386. Like APL*PLUS PC it will run under DOS, but will take full advantage of the 80386 architecture; 32-bit addressing will permit workspace and variable sizes that are limited only by the amount of installed memory. 32-bit integers and 1-bit booleans also feature.

In addition, the new interpreter will include the second-generation functionality of APL*PLUS UNX, APL*PLUS VMS and APL*PLUS Mainframe, e.g. nested arrays. High compatibility with APL*PLUS PC will offer a natural migration path at minimal cost for existing APL*PLUS PC users to the new generation of powerful personal computers

Release 7 of APL*PLUS PC and release 2.6 of STATGRAPHICS have been well received, including the release 7 Run Time System. Demand for updates has been much higher than expected, and we were particularly surprised at the number of people who have updated from release 5 to 7.

APL*PLUS PC Tools have been repackaged, with the 3270 IRMA comms now in a separate package; The IRMA Module. All the other utilities have been combined in a single toolkit.

The interest from VS APL users in the APL*PLUS Mainframe and Compiler technology continues, with several new trials planned for early 1988.

Cocking & Drury are supplying APL*PLUS VMS, the latest second-generation APL*PLUS interpreter for DEC MicroVAX and VAX computers running under DEC's native operating system. The product is treated in a similar manner to APL*PLUS Mainframe, i.e. full systems support as well as APL support are provided.

Cocking & Drury is developing a new service for companies concerned about the impact of APL on their computer services. Please contact Romilly Cocking for more details.

The past six months have seen four new consultants join the company; Liz Bland and Sylvia Kahl join the London office and Christian Jensen and Kevin Ryall are based in Reading.