Re: [Bug-apl] Bug in my knowledge..

[Juergen Sauermann]

Hi Peter,

I believe IBM's APL2 langage reference manual and the ISO standard 
describe almost the
same thing in different ways. The ISO standard  is a bit more formal 
while the IBM docs are
more descriptive. Unfortunately the ISO standard has significant gaps. 
most notably the
concept of binding strength which is only present in the IBM doc.

GNU APL was designed against both documents and differences (there were 
very few, mainly
rellated to formatting of numbers) were handled on a case by case basis. 
There are a few more
operators in the ISO standard and they were implemented in GNU APL.

Apart from that the goal is to be as compatible to IBM APL2 as possible. 
A few minor things are
missing, eg trace/stop vectors. They may be added at a later time. See 
README-4-compliance.
Also have a look at the info file of GNU APL, enter "info apl" after 
installation. The extra functions
of GNU APL are described there.

Best regards,
Jürgen Sauermann


On 04/18/2014 08:10 PM, Peter Teeson wrote:
> This is a bug in my brain but related to GNU APL.
> Last time I used APL was when I worked at IPSA.
> The language has been extended since then.
>
> I have the ISO Standard and even the IBM APL2 Language Summary & Programming 
> Guide.
> What can I read for a summary of the differences between the APL I know/knew 
> and GNU APL - ISO 13751?
> (In my days at IPSA I shared an office with one of the authors of the ISO std)
>
> TIA & respect
>
> Peter