[kwlug-disc] Off Topic: APL

[Khalid Baheyeldin]

Wow!

That brings memories.

In the mid 1980s, I was part of a team to implement an information system
on a mainframe. The mainframe did not have any data entry method, so the
branches would use a PC with a COBOL application on it to enter the data
and store it on 5.25" diskettes. A driver would collect them and take them
to the data centre where they were uploaded to the mainframe.

The guy who wrote the COBOL application for the PC was a seasoned mainframe
veteran from Alabama and was frustrated by the lack of tools on the PC. So
he used a PC version of APL, and its internal full screen editor to edit
the COBOL source code, and then wrote some custom APL to reformat it
correctly. That was amazing.

It was fascinated by how APL did not use ASCII letters for directives, but
rather mneumonics that looked like playing card symbols. Also the sheer
power of that language/platform.

On Sat, Jan 20, 2018 at 11:10 AM, <jvj at golden.net> wrote:

> Going OT with the ancient IBM stuff.
> I skimmed past the S/38 and As/400 and know very little about those
> machines.
> AFAIK The VM capability would let system developers define target systems
> somewhat different than the system used for development.
>
> As a student (circa 1972) I ran Fortran card deck assignments and personal
> APL stuff on the 360 aka 360 sickly.
> A grad student created an APL system function that would read a text
> matrix as a text file containing a card deck.
> When I used this APL function to run Fortran assignments I noted that my
> jobs would bump above other jobs submitted by people who had been standing
> in line for the card deck reader.
> APL - as an interactive subsystem on the 360 - had a higher system
> priority than other jobs, e.g. compiler, assembler, etc.
> My lowly Fortran jobs, submitted through APL, inherited the APL priority.
>
> JohnJ
>
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