The Random Vector

Transcribed from the printed issue; not yet reviewed. Read it in the PDF of the issue, page 33

The Random Vector¶

January 1991

The Newsletter of the APL Statistics Library

Editor David Eastwood

This Random Vector has been reprinted from VECTOR Vol.7 No.3. VECTOR is the Quarterly Journal of the British APL Association; for more information about the British APL Association, contact the Secretary: Anthony Camacho, [address and telephone number omitted].

Contents¶

Editorial¶

The APL Statistics Library project has now been formally running for over a year, with invitational conferences at Gregynog in 1989 (Vector 6.3) and Swansea in 1990 (Vector 7.3). The ASL project, for those readers who have not seen any of the previously published material, is an initiative launched by a number of users of APL for statistical work - largely in higher education. As you will see from Tony O’Hagan’s article later in this newsletter, the purpose behind the project is to underline the usefulness of APL for statistical research and teaching purposes by providing a tested and approved library of statistical routines written in APL.

The British APL Association has been sponsoring the ASL project over this period and has kindly agreed to dedicate a section of Vector to news of the ASL project. It is hoped that we can find a steady series of items which cover the progress of the ASL project and which are also of interest to the general reader. In this issue we begin to look at the history of the ASL project (see also Vector 7.1), review the current status of the project as it runs through the beta test phase for its first volumes and look in a little bit of detail at the concepts that underpin one of the initial ‘Bottom Shelf’ volumes - Basic Graphics.

The ASL Management Team¶

Perhaps the most important thing for many of you is to know who is running ASL. The management of the project is conducted by the Management Team comprising a Chairman, Deputy Chairman, Manager and two representatives of the British APL Association (BAA). BAA representation is important because it is they who are funding the project, and we are consequently extremely grateful for their support.

Strategic Planning and all major issues are dealt with at full Team meetings, but day to day running is handled by the Manager. Names and addresses are as follows.