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1.1 root 1: .de BO
2: [\fB\\$1\fR]
3: ..
4: .TH APL 1 "3 August 1983"
5: .UC 4
6: .SH NAME
7: apl \- apl interpreter
8: .SH SYNPOSIS
9: .B apl
10: .BO \-m
11: .BO \-e
12: .BO \-q
13: .BO \-r
14: .BO \-t
15: .BO \-c
16: .BO \-C
17: .BO \-d
18: .BO \-D
19: [ws]
20: .br
21: .B apl2
22: .BO \-m
23: .BO \-e
24: .BO \-q
25: .BO \-r
26: .BO \-t
27: .BO \-c
28: .BO \-C
29: .BO \-d
30: .BO \-D
31: [ws]
32: .SH DESCRIPTION
33: This is the Unix APL interpreter.
34: It has lived through several different versions of
35: Unix and grown steadily more complex.
36: Currently,
37: a version of APL for Unix on the PDP-11
38: and the VAX is supported.
39: This version supports monadic and dyadic domino,
40: a state indicator of sorts,
41: and Unix I/O quad functions.
42: .PP
43: The best documentation concerning the
44: use of APL once it has been started
45: from the shell is the
46: \fIUnix APL\\11 User's Manual\fR.
47: This manual includes a list of the
48: APL character set,
49: system commands,
50: quad functions,
51: and i-beam functions,
52: as well as an overall description of the
53: use of APL.
54: The specifics are contained in the
55: four appendices for easy reference
56: by the more experienced user.
57: .PP
58: The command invoking APL may optionally contain
59: the name of a workspace file to be loaded
60: (default is ``continue'',
61: or,
62: if ``continue'' does not exist in the current directory,
63: APL starts executing with a ``clear ws'').
64: .PP
65: There are all sorts of flags which may be specified
66: when APL is invoked.
67: Only a subset of these are of general usefulness;
68: the remainder exist for convenience in
69: debugging and software maintenance purposes.
70: In the following description,
71: the flags are presented from
72: those which are of the most general interest
73: to those which are of interest only to
74: persons maintaining APL.
75: .PP
76: Normally, APL runs in ``ASCII mode''.
77: (This is discussed more fully following the
78: description of the various flags.)
79: If ``\-m'' is specified,
80: APL ``maps'' the standard input and
81: standard output as appropriate for use
82: with an APL terminal.
83: .PP
84: By default, APL attempts to determine whether or
85: not the standard input is a terminal.
86: If not,
87: all input will be echoed to the standard output.
88: In this fashion,
89: when APL is run with a pipe or disc file
90: as input,
91: the output clearly shows the commands
92: issued along with their results.
93: The ``\-e'' flag forces APL to echo its input
94: to its output regardless of the input device.
95: Similarly, ``\-q'' (``quiet'')
96: forces APL not to echo its input to the standard output.
97: .PP
98: The flag ``\-r'' has meaning only when the Purdue
99: EE editor XED is used.
100: This flag is passed by APL to XED to
101: invoke funny XED stuff.
102: This is generally a non-portable feature.
103: .PP
104: By default,
105: APL places its scratch files into /tmp.
106: If the ``\-t'' flag is specified,
107: temporary files will be placed into the
108: current directory.
109: .PP
110: By default,
111: APL catches fatal signals
112: (e.g. memory fault,
113: floating-point exception,
114: etc.)
115: and prints a termination message of the
116: form:
117: .IP
118: fatal signal: message
119: .PP
120: It then exits normally.
121: If the flag ``\-c'' or ``\-C'' is specified,
122: it will print this error message and then
123: exit via an ``abort'',
124: producing a core dump.
125: If the flag ``\-d'' or ``\-D'' is specified,
126: it will not catch fatal errors,
127: and thus will be automatically terminated
128: by the Unix kernel if a fatal signal
129: is received.
130: (This will also invoke a core dump.)
131: These flags are useful for debugging APL,
132: but aren't of much use to the ordinary user.
133: .PP
134: The program ``apl2'' is identical to ``apl''
135: except that ``apl'' is double-precision and
136: ``apl2'' is single-precision.
137: Workspaces are stored in whatever precision
138: is in use,
139: and are converted if necessary automatically
140: when they are ``)load''ed.
141: Effectively, ``apl2'' has twice
142: as much space in its internal workspace.
143: .PP
144: APL is designed to operate principally from
145: ASCII terminals.
146: Upper-case letters are used for the various
147: APL symbols,
148: as described in a separate document.
149: Overstrike characters,
150: which generally will not appear as overstruck
151: characters on a CRT screen,
152: are generated by typing the first character,
153: a control-H,
154: and the second character.
155: The order of the two characters is not significant.
156: The workspace used by APL is stored in this
157: special ASCII format.
158: .PP
159: APL does support APL terminals.
160: To use APL from an APL terminal,
161: it is necessary to specify the ``\-m''
162: flag when calling APL from the shell;
163: this causes the APL character set to
164: be mapped to/from ASCII for input/output.
165: The workspace file is still stored in
166: ASCII format;
167: thus work may be done interchangeably
168: on both types of terminals.
169: .SH HISTORY
170: APL was originally written at Bell Labs by
171: Ken Thompson,
172: sometime before version six Unix.
173: It was modified for a while at
174: Yale University,
175: and then came to Purdue University,
176: where it has undergone extensive
177: modification.
178: It is currently being supported by
179: the Electrical Engineering Unix network.
180: Complaints, suggestions, or whatever
181: should be forwarded to user ``bruner''
182: on the EE Network system,
183: or sent to either
184: John Bruner
185: or
186: Dr. Anthony P. Reeves
187: in the school of Electrical Engineering
188: at Purdue University.
189: .SH FILES
190: /tmp/apled.###### - editor temporary file
191: .br
192: /tmp/aplws.###### - workspace temporary file
193: .br
194: continue - default workspace file
195: .SH "SEE ALSO"
196: aplcvt(1) \- convert between PDP-11 and VAX workspace formats
197: .br
198: aplopr(1) \- output APL files to the Printronix printer
199: .br
200: cata(1) \- display functions with APL line numbers
201: .br
202: prws(1) \- print workspace
203: .SH BUGS
204: Character comparisons do not work.
205: .br
206: Only a restricted form of dyadic format is available.
207: Laminate is not supported.
208: .br
209: The workspace size on the PDP-11 is limited to about
210: 5000 items in APL and
211: 10000 in APL2.
212: .br
213: The workspace size on the VAX
214: is limited only by the virtual memory system.
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