Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!decwrl!crltrx!decvax!ima!esegue!johnl
From: johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us (John R. Levine)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: In computing, late-bloomers are usually never-bloomers
Summary: APL as specification language
Message-ID: <1989Dec21.013530.2455@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us>
Date: 21 Dec 89 01:35:30 GMT
References: <24317@cup.portal.com> <480@dmk3b1.UUCP> <1989Nov28.104128.8045@hellgate.utah.edu> <1Tcfjq#9jMTbv=eric@snark.uu.net> <3511@convex.UUCP> <1933@eric.mpr.ca> <1TfOZ0#142gXX=eric@snark.uu.net> <629274691.11005@myrias.com> <53@zds-ux.UUCP>
Reply-To: johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us (John R. Levine)
Organization: Segue Software, Cambridge MA
Lines: 17

In article <53@zds-ux.UUCP> gerry@zds-ux.UUCP (Gerry Gleason) writes:
>The best use I've seen for APL was in a book on ALU architecture.  They
>used APL algorithms to describe hardware, ...

The first place many of us saw APL was in the IBM Systems Journal in 1964.
There was a description of the architecture of the new System/360 written
entirely in an early version of APL.  It was quite complete, even to such
things as the emergency pull switch.

It was the same issue with Brezenham's classic article about how to draw a
straight line on a raster device, a pen plotter attached to a 1620.  There
is some extra cruft in the presentation of the method because he wanted to
avoid an integer division by two which was very slow.
-- 
John R. Levine, Segue Software, POB 349, Cambridge MA 02238, +1 617 864 9650
johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us, {ima|lotus|spdcc}!esegue!johnl
"Now, we are all jelly doughnuts."