Subject: re: APL Trivia
From: richard.levine@canrem.com (Richard Levine)
References: <40ac79$h1h@sol.ccs.deakin.edu.au>
Date: Fri, 11 Aug 95 03:36:00 -0500
Organization: CRS Online  (Toronto, Ontario)

q
-> Hi,
-> I would like to know what APL stands for
-> and how did the name originate?
->
-> Thanks
->
-> D.Watkins

further to the above question, my understanding is that K. Iverson wrote
a book in 1962 called "A Programming Language".  In this book he
proposed a notation but did not name it.  Some people at that time
called it "Iverson notation".

After a long story when it was implemented at IBM and the time came to
give the system a name, my understanding is that there was no agreement
on what to call it, so the name of the book was proposed, and the system
was called by the initials of that name, which seems reasonable.

I believe the specific suggestion to do this can be traced to a
particular person, but since I was not there, I cannot say for sure.
Perhaps someone knows the answer to that one.
