News from Sustaining Members

Transcribed from the printed issue; not yet reviewed. Read it in the PDF of the issue, page 24

Dyadic Systems Ltd¶

Dyadic is pleased to release more details of its forthcoming implementation of Dyalog APL for MS DOS.

This is a full implementation of Dyalog APL designed to run under MS-DOS 3.3 (or higher) on any 386-based PC or PS/2. It requires a minimum of 2Mb RAM, but supports optional demand paging so that the size of the workspace can exceed the physical memory installed. An 80387 maths co-processor is strongly recommended.

The new Dyalog APL Screen Manager based on ⎕SM (Screen Map) and ⎕SR (Screen Read) is included in the DOS version. It has been implemented using a direct memory map of the display, so screen updates are extremely fast.

One of the most important features of standard Dyalog APL is the ease with which Auxiliary Processors can be written in high-level languages. This feature has been extended to the DOS version so that existing Dyalog APL APs can be ported with little difficulty. The AP interface also includes additional facilities designed to improve performance and functionality. For example, you can now access workspace variables and even execute APL expressions from within an AP.

Naturally, the component file system supports standard MS DOS networking protocols, and there are facilities for accessing DOS native files. A built in APL terminal emulator is also included.

Graphics support is provided through an interface to GSS*CGI. Not only does this product provide a rich set of graphics primitives, but device drivers are available for a very wide range of displays, printers and plotters. The interface, which was originally developed for the Xenix version of Dyalog APL, allows you to draw several objects with one command using nested arrays.

Dyadic is designing a new development environment/editor which will appear first in the MS DOS version, but will later be available on all implementations of Dyalog APL. This will be a window-based debugger/editor that is fully integrated with the APL session manager.

Alpha-test copies of Dyalog APL for MS DOS will be distributed during May. The production version will be shipped in August. The software will not be copy-protected, and an affordable run-time license will be available. Final pricing will be announced later.

MicroAPL Ltd¶

MicroAPL is continuing to expand its consultancy activities, with an increasing amount of non-APL work. We have been actively recruiting new consultancy staff and still have vacancies in this area. APL work undertaken in recent months includes Securities analysis, local government contracts and real time management information systems. Non-APL work has included PC network consultancy and installation as well as the provision of systems written in C, Assembly Language and work with some of the modern database software for micros.

APL software sales continue to grow. MicroAPL's commitment to selling good APL software at fair prices continues to be supported by our clients. STSC's APL*PLUS II has proved successful, as well as the recent APL*PLUS PC version 8 upgrades. Sales of APL.68000 for the Apple Mac provide evidence of the growing inroads this computer is making into the academic and business communities - in some cases replacing PCs for established applications.

Following our release of APL.68000 version 7.20 for the Apple Macintosh version, we have upgraded a number of other APL.68000 implementations to version 7.20. Users of our Mirage-based machines such as the Spectrum and the Aurora will be pleased to hear that version 7.20 is available for their machines - with the most significant feature being the inclusion of the EDIT full screen editor into APL.68000 as a system function (and command). We have also started shipping version 7.20 for the Wicat MCS and Unix versions and will shortly be announcing a release date for the Commodore Amiga.

Cocking and Drury Ltd¶

Welcome to Richard Green and Adam Marengos who have recently joined the company. Richard is a statistics graduate from Swansea University who has just completed his PhD in Operational Research which involved graph theoretic modelling techniques for pallet packing and stock cutting. Adam joins as our new administrative assistant.

The success of APL*PLUS Mainframe and the APL*PLUS II System has made it necessary to expand the APL*PLUS support team, and we are now implementing our plan to recruit in this area.

Release 2 of the APL*PLUS II System for 80386 based machines is currently being beta-tested, and we expect to start delivering in August. The new release will include quad-NA and will now produce results when functions derived from the 'each' operator are applied to empties - two frequently requested features. Release 2 will also provide an easier migration path from APL*PLUS PC, as well as many further improvements. Under the support agreement with our existing II System customers, all upgrades are automatic and free.

Run-time and corporate run-time deals are now available for the APL*PLUS II System.

New releases are also planned for the APL*PLUS Mainframe, Vax and Unix interpreters, as well as Release 9 of APL*PLUS PC later this year, demonstrating STSC's commitment to connectivity.

I P Sharp Associates¶

Gottfried Bach, I.P. Sharp Regional Manager for Germany, Austria and Switzerland, is promoted to the post of Manager, I.P. Sharp Europe, based in Frankfurt. He also becomes Manager, Global Limits Control System, with worldwide responsibility. Mike Butler, Product Manager, Global Limits Control System, is promoted to the post of Manager, I.P.Sharp UK, based at our Coventry office.

APL People Ltd¶

This past financial year has been our most successful yet, with a record number of people being placed in new jobs and a steady growth in consultancy.

Most of our existing contracts have been renewed and new work has been secured for the Company (in FOCUS now as well as APL). We currently have several large projects underway and are always interested to hear from APLers looking for contract work.

On the recruitment front, there has been a lot of activity recently, and we are expecting the momentum to increase as Summer approaches and more people contemplate a move. APL People offers free career advice and assistance to anyone in the APL community. We are also happy to advise 'first-time' contractors on such things as Tax and National Insurance and how to go about setting up a Limited Company.

Jill Moss has recently been elected to the post of Recruitment Officer for the BAA and should, by the time this is published, have instigated a number of campaigns for increasing the membership of the Association. We would like to take this opportunity to welcome any new members reading Vector for the first time.

Finally, our sister company, Applied Production Logic, is now marketing the completed multi-user version of its Production Control software and has already had orders from a number of prestigious clients in the engineering industry.