Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!ljdickey
From: ljdickey@water.waterloo.edu (Lee Dickey)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.apl
Subject: Re: APL texts?
Keywords: APL, texts
Message-ID: <1873@water.waterloo.edu>
Date: 11 Oct 88 13:05:51 GMT
References: <476@ztivax.UUCP> <3ef9faa3.fef1@dlfef1.engin.umich.edu>
Reply-To: ljdickey@water.waterloo.edu (Lee Dickey)
Organization: U. of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 35

In article <3ef9faa3.fef1@dlfef1.engin.umich.edu> cvink@caen.engin.umich.edu (charles e vink) writes:
> I'm interested in learning APL, but no local bookstore has any books on the
> subject.
> Any suggestions for a good introductory text?  I will be using the Sharp
> shareware APL that came over the net some time ago and will have it's manuals,
> but they will probably not be enough.  Any ideas?


The Sharp Reference manual by Paul Berry has been, for some time, the best
reference manual in the APL world.  I think you will learn a lot from it.

For learning APL from scratch, there are three authors that stand out:

		Gillman and Rose
		Pakin and Polivka
		Howard Peele

The Gillman and Rose book has been around for a long time, and has had a
number of revisions.  Pakin and Polivka has also been around for some time,
but has not gone through so many revisions.

Howard Peele's book, "APL, an introduction" was published by Holt Rinehart
and Winston in 1986.  It has more than 450 pages and an index with about
1000 entries.  This book has also gone through revisions and publishers,
and earlier editions are not recommended, but this one, in my opinion,
is excellent.  Many APLers learned APL using Gillman and Rose, and swear
by it.  Today, I think Peele is better.


Disclaimer:  My opinions are my own.
-- 
    L. J. Dickey, Faculty of Mathematics, University of Waterloo.
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