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Annotation of 43BSDReno/share/doc/ucs/apl/apl.1, revision 1.1

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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