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From: ljdickey@watmath.UUCP (Lee Dickey)
Newsgroups: net.physics
Subject: Re: Languages for number crunching
Message-ID: <126@watmath.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 15-Nov-85 16:56:25 EST
Article-I.D.: watmath.126
Posted: Fri Nov 15 16:56:25 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 16-Nov-85 01:28:49 EST
References: <722@sri-arpa.ARPA> <5910@tektronix.UUCP>
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 36

>       An approach that I've never seen suggested would be to use the
>       APL language.  It has vector and matrix operations built into
>       the language.  It would require NO language extensions to use
>       vector hardware and since each command is so powerful, an
>       interpreter (which most APL implementations are) running on a
>       vector machine should really perform.

There is a quiet revolution going on.  Here are three examples of array
machines and array languages that match very well:

	The first was  The APL Machine, an interpreter that claims to
	meet the forthcoming  ISO APL Standard,  running on a hardware
	that uses array processors originally designed and built by
	Analogic (the people who bring you CAT scanners and NMR
	devices) for developing images.

The second and third examples are from somewhat larger companies that
you are more likely to have heard of:

	Honeywell's CP6 version of APL running on the model 90, built
	by NEC, uses the array instructions.   This was announced at
	HLSUA.

	IBM's APL2 running on a 3090, makes use of the vector
	instruction set.  Some users thought that the 3090 would come
	with only two language processors that would make use of the
	vector instructions.  APL2 is the first really high level
	language to do so.

All are very fast indeed, and much easier to use than FORTRAN.

I guess the question now is, do you want to spend your life writing
programs, or do you want to get your results right away.  The learning
curve for APL is a bit steeper at the beginning than for lower level
languages (such as C and Fortran) but the payoff is in productivity.