The evolution of APL

ABSTRACT

This paper is a discussion of the evolution of the APL language, and it treats implementations and applications only to the extent that they appear to have exercised a major influence on that evolution. Other sources of historical information are cited in References 1-3; in particular, The Design of APL [1] provides supplementary detail on the reasons behind many of the design decisions made in the development of the language. Readers requiring background on the current definition of the language should consult APL Language [4]. Although we have attempted to confirm our recollections by reference to written documents and to the memories of our colleagues, this remains a personal view which the reader should perhaps supplement by consulting the references provided. In particular, much information about individual contributions will be found in the Appendix to The Design of APL [1], and in the Acknowledgements in A Programming Language [10] and in APL\360 User's Manual [23]. Because Reference 23 may no longer be readily available, the acknowledgements from it are reprinted in Appendix A.

REFERENCES

• 1: Falkoff, A.D., and K.E. Iverson, The Design of APL, IBM Journal of Research and Development, Vol.17, No. 4, July 1973, pages 324-334.
• 2: The Story of APL, Computing Report in Science and Engineering, IBM Corp., Vol.6, No.2, April 1970, pages 14-18.
• 3: Origin of APL, a videotape prepared by John Clark for the Fourth APL Conference, 1974, with the participation of P.S. Abrams, L.M. Breed, A.D. Falkoff, K.E. Iverson, and R.D. Moore. Available from Orange Coast Community College, Costa Mesa, California.
• 4: Falkoff, A.D., and K.E. Iverson, APL Language, Form No. GC26-3847, IBM Corp., 1975
• 5: McDonnell, E. E., The Story of o, APL Quote-Quad, Vol. 8, No. 2, ACM, SIGPLAN Technical Committee on APL (STAPL), December, 1977, pages 48-54.
• 6: Brooks, F.P., and K.E. Iverson, Automatic Data Processing, John Wiley and Sons, 1973.
• 7: A. D. Falkoff, Algorithms for Parallel-Search Memories, Journal of the ACM (JACM), v.9 n.4, p.488-511, Oct. 1962 [doi>10.1145/321138.321147]
• 8: Iverson, K.E., Machine Solutions of Linear Differential Equations: Applications to a Dynamic Economic Model, Harvard University, 1954 (Ph.D. Thesis).
• 9: Iverson, K.E., The Description of Finite Sequential Processes, Proceedings of the Fourth London Symposium on Information Theory, Colin Cherry, Editor, 1960, pages 447-457.
• 10: Kenneth E. Iverson, A Programming Language., John Wiley & Sons, 1962
• 11: Graduate Program in Automatic Data Processing, Harvard University, 1954, (Brochure).
• 12: Iverson, K.E., Graduate Research and Instruction, Proceedings of First Conference on Training Personnel for the Computing Machine Field, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, June, 1954, Arvid W. Jacobson, Editor, pages 25-29.
• 13: Falkoff, A.D., K.E. Iverson, and E.H. Sussenguth, A Formal Description of System/360, IBM Systems Journal, Vol 4, No. 4, October 1964, pages 198-262.
• 14: Kenneth E. Iverson, Formalism in programming languages, Communications of the ACM, v.7 n.2, p.80-88, Feb. 1964 [doi>10.1145/363921.363933]
• 15: Iverson, K.E., Elementary Functions, Science Research Associates, 1966.
• 16: Berry, P.C., APL\360 Primer, IBM Corporation (GH20-0689), 1969.
• 17: H. Hellerman, Experimental personalized array translator system, Communications of the ACM, v.7 n.7, p.433-438, July 1964 [doi>10.1145/364520.364573]
• 18: Wolontis, V.M., A Complete Floating Point Decimal Interpretive System, Technical Newsletter No. 11, IBM Applied Science Division, 1956.
• 19: R. H. Lathwell, APL comparison tolerance, Proceedings of the eighth international conference on APL, p.255-258, September 22-24, 1976, Ottawa, Canada [doi>10.1145/800114.803685]
• 20: Breed, L.M., Definitions for Fuzzy Floor and Ceiling, Technical Report No. TR03.024, IBM Corporation, March 1977.
• 21: Falkoff, A.D., and K.E. Iverson, The APL\360 Terminal System, Symposium on Interactive Systems for Experimental Applied Mathematics, eds. M. Klerer and J. Reinfelds, Academic Press, New York, 1968, pages 22-37.
• 22: Falkoff, A.D., and K.E. Iverson, APL\360, IBM Corporation, November 1966.
• 23: Falkoff, A.D., and K.E. Iverson, APL\360 User's Manual, IBM Corporation, August 1968.
• 24: Philip S. Abrams, An interpreter for "Iverson notation", Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 1966
• 25: Breed, L.M., and R.H. Lathwell, The Implementation of APL\360, Symposium on Interactive Systems for Experimental and Applied Mathematics, eds. M. Klerer and J. Reinfelds, Academic Press, New York, 1968, pages 390-399.
• 26: Jenkins, M.A., The Solution of Linear Systems of Equations and Linear Least Squares Problems in APL, IBM Technical Report No. 320-2989, 1970.
• 27: Sharp, Ian P., The Future of APL to benefit from a new file system, Canadian Data Systems, March 1970.
• 28: Breed, L.M., The APL PLUS File System, Proceedings of SHARE XXXV, August, 1970, page 392.
• 29: APL PLUS File Subsystem Instruction Manual, Scientific Time Sharing Corporation, Washington, D.C., 1970.
• 30: Lathwell, R.H., System Formulation and APL Shared Variables, IBM Journal of Research and Development, Vol.17, No. 4, July 1973, pages 353-359.
• 31: Falkoff, A.D., and K.E. Iverson, APLSV User's Manual, IBM Corporation, 1973.
• 32: Adin D. Falkoff, Some implications of shared variables, Proceedings of the eighth international conference on APL, p.141-148, September 22-24, 1976, Ottawa, Canada [doi>10.1145/800114.803671]
• 33: Beberman, M., and H.E. Vaughn, High School Mathematics Course 1, Heath, 1964.
• 34: Cajori, F., A History of Mathematical Notations, Vol. 1, Notations in Elementary Mathematics, The Open Court Publishing Co., La Salle, Illinois, 1928.
• 35: Iverson, K.E., Algebra: an algorithmic treatment, Addison Wesley, 1972.
• 36: Falkoff, A.D., APL75 and APL76: an overview of the Proceedings of the Pisa and Ottawa Congresses, ACM Computing Reviews, Vol. 18, No. 4, April, 1977, Pages 139-141.
• 37: Weidmann, Clark, APLUM Reference Manual, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts, 1975.
• 38: Sharp APL Technical Note No. 25, I.P. Sharp Associates, Toronto, Canada.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  K. Computing Milieux
  K.2 HISTORY OF COMPUTING

      Nouns: APL

General Terms:
Languages