Newsgroups: comp.lang.apl
Path: watmath!watserv1!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!batcomputer!cornell!uw-beaver!ubc-cs!rubis!jonathan
From: jonathan@rubis.geop.ubc.ca (Jonathan Thornburg)
Subject: workspace interchange standards (was: Re: APL workspaces)
Message-ID: <1991Nov9.030113.17174@cs.ubc.ca>
Summary: There already *is* a "Workspace Interchange Standard"
Sender: usenet@cs.ubc.ca (Usenet News)
Organization: Dept. of Geophysics and Astronomy, University of B.C.
References: <91310.162538HAC041@DJUKFA11.BITNET> <1991Nov7.183021.21647@csi.jpl.nasa.gov> <91312.173719HAC041@DJUKFA11.BITNET>
Date: Sat, 9 Nov 91 03:01:13 GMT

In article <91312.173719HAC041@DJUKFA11.BITNET> HAC041@DJUKFA11.BITNET (Konrad Hinsen) writes:
>Obviously some standard would be nice. But I can't judge which format
>would be most suitable.
>The systems I have used (APL2 for VM/CMS, IBM's APL2/PC and APL.68000
>Level II) all can read and write the APL transfer forms defined by
>IBM, which therefore seems a reasonable choice to me. But I don't
>know if other systems can read and/or write this format.

The "Workspace Interchange Standard" (WSIS) was developed about 15 years
ago to deal with this very problem.  It's a portable, vendor-neutral
(sorry if this sounds like OSF PR babble!) exchange format for APL
workspaces.  A wide variety of major APL system implementers participated
in its definition.  APL Quote Quad published the standard about 15 years
ago (sorry, I don't have the exact reference).  Unfortunately, I believe
it didn't (doesn't) support nested/general arrays.

Despite this weakness, one would hope (wish) (pray) that by now all
common APLs would support it, at least as a lowest common denominator.  
And that all the major APL implementers would agree on a standard
WSIS-II which does support general/nested arrays.  (He says hopefully?)

-- 
- Jonathan Thornburg              (best) --> jonathan@geop.ubc.ca
  Dept. of Geophysics & Astronomy           thornburg@mtsg.ubc.ca
  2219 Main Mall                          thornbur@physics.ubc.ca
  The University of British Columbia      userbkis@ubcmtsg.bitnet
  Vancouver     BC     V6T 1Z4
  Canada
