Dyalog APL and MS-DOS 5 Dick Bowman 2 Dean Gardens L o n d o n E17 3QP England 81-520-6334 R e v i e w s o f Dyadic S y s t e m s ' D y a l o g A P L for DOS/386 by b o t h G r e g g T a y l o r and m y s e l f h a v e concluded t h a t all in all t hi s is an e x c e l l e n t p r o d u c t ; in d e e d it is my A P L o f p r e f e r e n c e on t h e 386/486 platform. I n t e n d i n g us e r s should, h o w e v e r , be a w a r e o f an i n c o m p a t i b i l i t y w i t h t h e HIMEM.SY$ device dr iv er . A n y a t t e m p t to r u n Dyalog 6.1 w i t h DOS l o ad ed h ig h will r e s u l t in an e r r o r message along the lines "assertion failed in file s i g n a l , c at line 138." Dyadic Systems is aware of the problem and advises their users to operate using alternate CONFIG.SY$ files, with HIFIEM.$¥$ for "ordinary" DOS sessions and without for A P L sessions. It appears that the underlying cause is the P h a r L a p extender. T h e intention at this point in time ( D e c e m b e r 1991) is that the problem will be fixed for the forthcoming W i n d o w s release; m y personal hope is that Dyadic Systems will also be able to issue a fix for vanilla D O S users at around the s a m e time. • all o v e r t h e w o r l d h a v e a s k e d for e l e c t r o n i c versions. T h e i r r e q u e s t s have not gone u n h e a r d , a n d now t h e f u n c t i o n s o f t h e T o r o n t o T o o l k i t a re a re available in e l e c t r o n i c form and h a v e b e e n p l a c e d in t h e A P L a r c h i v e s a t W a t e r l o o . T h e y are available by a n o n y m o u s f t p f r o m t h e file s e r v e r wats ervl. uwaterloo, ca also k n o w n as 1 2 9 . 9 7 . 1 2 9 . 140, in t h e d i r e c t o r y ~/languages/apl/workspace s/toronto, toolkit T h i s r e l e a s e , V e r s i o n 2.1, is an i m p r o v e d a n d e x p a n d e d v e r s i o n o f t h e p r e v i o u s v e r s i o n , and is dist r i b u t e d onl y in e l e c t r o n i c form. It h a s b e e n p l a c e d in public d o m a i n by t h e A P L Special I n t e r e s t G r o u p o f T o r o n t o , and t h e T o o l k i t e d i t o r , R i c h a r d L e v in e . H a v e y o u t r i e d free soft,ware t h a t w a s advertised as r e a l l y fast, or f a n t a s t i c and gee whiz, o n ly to find t h a t it does n o t w o r k ? Well, th is s t u f f works. It r u n s , and it r u n s on a wide r a n g e o f m a c h i n e s and A P L i m p l e m e n t a t i o n s , b e c a u s e it is w r i t t e n to t h e ISO S t a n d a r d APL. H e r e y o u will find 140 pages o f h i g h q u a l i t y m a t e r i a l s u b m i t t e d by a d e d i c a t e d group o f a m a t e u r and p r o f e s s i o n a l A P L e n t h u s i a s t s a n d m e t i c u l o u s l y edited b y R i c h a r d Levine. T h e r e are a l r e a d y v e r s i o n s for s e v e r a l d i f f e r e n t A PL s h e r e . Y ou m a y r e c o g n i z e t h e o n e y o u w a n t by its e x t e n d e r , b u t i f y o u d o n ' t find it, t h e r e is a WSI$0 file in the ISO A P L W o r k s p a c e I n t e r c h a n g e F o r m a t w h i c h m a y be used to c r e a t e t h e w o r k s p a c e for y o u r f a v o r i t e A PL . T h e files so fax are t hese: The Toronto Toolkit Prof. Lee J. Dickey Faculty of Mathematics University of Waterloo W a t e r l o o , C a n a d a N 2L 3G1 Internet: lj dickey@watmath, waterloo, r e a d m e ............................. instructions for starting out t o o l k i t .wsi .......Workspace Interchange Fits WSIS 0 t o o l k i t - , s a w ........................ Sharp APL workspace t o o l k i t , apl ................................... APL2, PC 32 bit t o o l k i t , a t f ............................... APL2 Transfer File t o o l k i t , s l t ......... STSC source level transfer format t o o l k i t . w s ....STSC APL*PIus If. Version 3, [oadable edu ...Happy programming! Editor's Note: This s o R w a r e w a s also available through the S o R w a r e E x c h a n g e On M a y 25th, 1992, t h e f u n c t i o n s and v a r i a b l e s o f V e r s i o n 2_1 o f t h e f am ous T o r o n t o A P L SIG T o o l k i t w e r e mad e available for d i s t r i b u t i o n in elect r o n i c form. T h e w o r k on T o r o n t o T o o l k i t s t a r t e d in 1983, i n s p i r e d in p a r t b y t h e F i n n A P L Idiom List. T h e editor, R i c h a r d Levine, and his group o f c o - w o r k e r s r e c e i v e d c o n t r i b u t i o n s f r o m m a n y places, b u t m a i n l y f r o m w i t h i n t he T o r o n t o A P L Special Interest G r o u p . T h e r e w e r e two r e l e a s e s and several p r i n t i n g s o f th e T o r o n t o T o o l k i t in p a p e r form in t h e mid-eighties, and w h e n it was a n n o u n c e d in A P L Q u o t e Quad, t h e T o r o n t o T o o l k i t a t t a i n e d an a l m o s t i n s t a n t a n e o u s i n t e r n a t i o n a l r e p u t a t i o n for e x c e l l e n c e . I n t h e i n t e r v e n i n g y e a r s , r e a d e r s from at t h e APL92 C o n f e r e n c e . • June 1992 - Volume 22, Number 4

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