Newsgroups: comp.lang.apl
Path: watmath!watserv1!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!torsqnt!geac!jtsv16!itcyyz!yrloc!rbe
From: rbe@yrloc.ipsa.reuter.COM (Robert Bernecky)
Subject: Re: APL's written in Forth
Message-ID: <1992Feb1.160353.9527@yrloc.ipsa.reuter.COM>
Reply-To: rbe@yrloc.ipsa.reuter.COM (Robert Bernecky)
Organization: Snake Island Research Inc, Toronto
References: <1992Jan29.993.774@dosgate> <1992Jan30.170533.2947@sspiff.UUCP>
Distribution: comp
Date: Sat, 1 Feb 92 16:03:53 GMT

In article <1992Jan30.170533.2947@sspiff.UUCP> dje@sspiff.UUCP (Doug Evans) writes:
>"elliott chapin" (elliott.chapin@canrem.uucp) writes:
>>RD>.......................................................  [All versions
>>RD>of J, so far, are written in C.]
>>
>>Yet another excuse for my dream of implementing APL in Forth :-)
>>
>>Elliott Chapin
>
>Isn't IAPL written in a Forth-like language? Seems to me I heard
>somewhere that was done because one can write extremely tight
>code with Forth, and IAPL had to run on some pretty small machines.

IAPL is written in a language created by the author of IAPL, who
has thus far not documented it for the world at large, if my understanding
is correct. Needless to say, this limits the amount we can say about
its structure or capabilities.

It is true that the language was created because of concerns about
storage size on some machines, a shortsighted decision, IMHO. 
The authors claimed that in spite of falling RAM prices, they HAD to
support a small English machine (the acorn perhaps?) which had about
as much RAM as a wristwatch 8^}. Hence the limitations on object size,
etc.

Robert Bernecky      rbe@yrloc.ipsa.reuter.com  bernecky@itrchq.itrc.on.ca 
Snake Island Research Inc  (416) 368-6944   FAX: (416) 360-4694 
18 Fifth Street, Ward's Island
Toronto, Ontario M5J 2B9 
Canada
