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Annotation of 43BSD/contrib/apl/doc/man.1, revision 1.1

1.1     ! root        1: .NH 2
        !             2: What are all of those funny characters?
        !             3: .PP
        !             4: Part of the power of
        !             5: \*a
        !             6: comes from the fact that it has so
        !             7: many primitive operators,
        !             8: usually referred to as ``functions''
        !             9: in the \*a literature.
        !            10: That is,
        !            11: many common functions,
        !            12: from addition and subtraction,
        !            13: to trigonometric functions,
        !            14: and to matrix operations,
        !            15: can be specified with a couple of characters.
        !            16: As a result,
        !            17: the character set for
        !            18: \*a
        !            19: does look a little strange.
        !            20: Basically,
        !            21: there are two major types of primitive
        !            22: functions.
        !            23: The most common functions,
        !            24: such as the arithmetic operators,
        !            25: etc.,
        !            26: are represented by a single character.
        !            27: For example,
        !            28: the symbol ``+'' represents addition.
        !            29: Because there are only so many keys
        !            30: on the keyboard,
        !            31: the other operators in \*a,
        !            32: for example, matrix inversion,
        !            33: are called ``overstrike'' characters.
        !            34: An overstrike character is treated
        !            35: as one symbol by \*a,
        !            36: but requires three keystrokes on the
        !            37: terminal.
        !            38: One common example is the ``comment''
        !            39: symbol.
        !            40: This symbol is composed of the
        !            41: three characters:
        !            42: C <backspace> J.
        !            43: (The is also the same thing as
        !            44: J <backspace> C.)
        !            45: On an \*a terminal,
        !            46: the equivalent characters are
        !            47: ``intersection'' and ``jot''.
        !            48: .PP
        !            49: This brings up another point.
        !            50: \*u \*a is capable of
        !            51: operating with one of two character
        !            52: sets.
        !            53: By default,
        !            54: the ASCII character set is used,
        !            55: since most computer terminals implement
        !            56: at least this set.
        !            57: When this character set is in use,
        !            58: lowercase letters are used to
        !            59: form variable and function names.
        !            60: Special symbols,
        !            61: such as ``+'',
        !            62: and the uppercase letters
        !            63: are used to form the \*a operators.
        !            64: To run \*a from an ASCII terminal,
        !            65: the command is simply:
        !            66: .sp
        !            67: $ apl
        !            68: .sp
        !            69: .PP
        !            70: \*a may also be instructed to use
        !            71: the \*a character set.
        !            72: This is useful only on an \*a
        !            73: terminal.
        !            74: ASCII is always used internally,
        !            75: so work may be done interchangeably
        !            76: on both \*a and ASCII terminals.
        !            77: If you wish to use the \*a
        !            78: character set rather than the ASCII
        !            79: character set, use the command:
        !            80: .sp
        !            81: $ apl -m
        !            82: .sp
        !            83: A list of the character set for \*u
        !            84: \*a appears in Appendix A.
        !            85: .so purdue

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