At Play With J: 2nd edn.

The second edition of At Play With J, collected from Eugene McDonnell’s columns for Vector, has been published at Lulu.com.

Here in one volume are Eugene McDonnell’s 41 excellent articles published between 1993 and 2006. They form a series of straightforward but profound mathematical investigations which are not only entertaining but expand the mind.

The classical tradition founded by Fermat and Gauss mystifies the mathematical art by concealing the way in which the investigator found the solution in the first place. Trainee researchers will gain reassurance from the fact that the author does not shy away from expressing perplexity and puzzlement along the often rocky road to a solution. As such it constitutes a unique masterclass in how to do mathematical research.

The second edition has been produced by a team of J experts, revising and reworking the examples to correspond to best practice with J 6.02. With prefaces by Roger Hui and Chris Burke.

The first edition reproduced the original Vector articles with only minor amendments. But J evolved over the many years during which McDonnell wrote his column, and in the latest version of J not all the examples work as they were given. The first edition is of largely historical interest.

Kx, Kbd+ User Group Meeting NYC Dec 2009

I had a wonderful time at the Kdb+ User Group Meeting last week in NYC.

Remember this guy? He was there... Simon Garland!

The stories from the trip are still coming out on the blog and the photos are posted in Flickr !

Grammar for pandas

In the latest J-ottings column, just posted to Vector, Norman Thomson mixes it with pandas, shoots and leaves. See Punctuation and rank

Graduation of mortality

Just posted at Vector: Jan Karman starts a series of articles on financial mathematics in q with Graduation of mortality

Combining far faster

In a new article posted at Vector, R.E. Boss harvests new insights from generating combinations faster in J.

Rediscovering APL’s history

A new article posted at Vector recounts Catherine Lathwell’s talk to APL BUG about her documentary film project.

APL2000 announces 2010 conference

Springtime in Washington with APL2000

APL2000 User Conference - April 26-27, 2010


Plan to join the APL community as we gather in our Nation's capital to focus on the latest developments in APL2000 software. Attend informative presentations, engage in stimulating discussions, and enjoy the camaraderie of spending a few days with fellow APL enthusiasts. Special weekend hotel rates will be available to conference attendees who arrive early.
SAVE THE DATE

Mark your calendar for the APL2000 User Conference

April 26-27, 2010
The APL2000 Team looks forward to seeing you in April.

Sonia Beekman

Director of Sales & Marketing
APLNow LLC dba APL2000
One Research Court, Suite 140
Rockville, MD 20850
Phone: 301-208-7150
Fax: 301-208-7151
E-mail: sonia.beekman@apl2000.com

www.apl2000.com

APL2010 Call for papers

APL2010 has called for papers.

2009 I.P. Sharp Associates Christmas party

Graeme Robertson has announced the 2009 I.P. Sharp London Christmas party will be held at its usual venue, The Plumbers Arms in Victoria, from 5pm on Fri 18 December.

IBM releases Workstation APL2 Version 2 Service Level 15

(Reposted from comp.lang.apl. See discussion there.)

The IBM APL Products and Services group is pleased to announce Service Level 15 for Workstation APL2 for Multiplatforms Version 2.0. This new service level is available for all Workstation APL2 platforms including AIX, Linux, Sun Solaris, and Windows.

Along with fixes for customer reported problems, Service Level 15 contains the following enhancements:

All platforms:

Fill functions are implemented for each and outer product.

Identity functions are implemented for reduce.

New external function LEXP provides lexical parsing using the APL2 syntax rules.

New external function FDELETE deletes an operating system file. On Windows, the file is sent to the Recycle Bin.

Windows:

General enhancements to the Session Manager environment include preservation of color and font information as data is copied to the clipboard and a single global custom colors array for all APL2 windows.

Additions to the Object Editor's Edit menu are Paste File, Redo, Comment and Decomment.

Extensive changes have been made to allow easier debugging of APL2 applications. Highlights of these changes include a new Debug menu in the Session Manager window, a Stack window and Watch windows for variables and expressions.

Unicode characters can be assigned to keys using the APL2 Keyboard Properties dialog.

New external function IDIOMSG provides a GUI interface to the APL2 Idioms Library.

Service Level 15 is available through the Support option at the APL2 home page to customers with a Software Maintenance contract.

Further information on the new facilities will be found in the updated APL2 User's Guide and on-line help after installing the service. A complete list of fixes included in this level will be found in the updated README (Unix systems) or "Service Information" (Windows systems) file.

Dyalog releases version 12.1

Dyalog has released Version 12.1

Jobs page

Times may be tough but Vector is seeing more and more work for array programmers.

The site now has a Jobs page.


Send news of work to our Jobs Editor, John ‘Jake’ Jacob jobs@vector.org.uk

J and q for Lispers

In a new article in Vector, Slobodan Blazeski explains why Lisp programmers study array languages

MicroAPL releases APLX 5

MicroAPL announces the commercial release of APLX Version 5 for all platforms – Windows, MacOS and Linux. APLX Server Editions, and 64-bit implementations, are also now available.

You can download free-of-charge evaluation copies of APLX Version 5 from the MicroAPL website www.microapl.co.uk/apl.

This is a quick summary of the new features introduced in Version 5 (see further details):

• Performance Profiling can be used to find out which parts of your APL code take the most time to execute, or are executed most often, and so helps you to determine which functions to concentrate on when optimising performance. You can view the performance data in a number of different ways, and easily 'drill down' to get more detail on exactly where execution time is spent. APLX Version 5 introduces a very easy-to-use menu-based profiling facility, or, for more detailed control, a new system function for profiling. The results are available in tables, in graphical form, and as a detailed web page report.
• Function, Workspace and Text Comparison
• A new Scrapbook and Idiom facility, to help you re-use code snippets and APL idioms.
• ‘Mixins’, an innovative extension to the object-oriented language features introduced in APLX v4. Mixins allow you to extend your user-defined classes so that, at run-time, they dynamically 'mix in' functionality (i.e. methods and properties, and perhaps events) from one or more other classes; these can be internal (user-defined, and written in APL), or external (.Net, Java, Ruby etc, or a built-in APLX system class).
• New external class interface: R Statistical Software. R is an open-source language and set of packages aimed principally at statistical analysis. It includes a huge library of pre-written statistical and mathematical routines, which can be accessed immediately and very conveniently from APLX. It also includes mathematically-oriented graphing facilities, and support for complex numbers.
• New Primitive Functions: Unique, Union, Intersection, Stop, Left, Pass, Right, and Not Match.
• XML Conversion facilities
• Support for SVG Graphics
• Larger component files.

Donald McIntyre

Roger Hui on the J Forum:

Donald B. McIntyre (1923-08-15 to 2009-10-21) passed away peacefully in the afternoon of October 21. Donald was an eminent geologist who pioneered the use of computers in geology. He was a gifted and inspiring teacher, an early and long-time APL and J user, and a friend and colleague of Ken Iverson and myself. He is survived by his wife Ann and his son Ewen. A memorial service will be held in St John’s Kirk in Perth, Scotland, this coming Friday, October 30.

Information about Donald’s life and times and his work can be found at www.mcintyre.me.uk

Professor McIntyre was a generous contributor to Vector. He is greatly missed.

Finnish Forest Seminar 15-16 Apr 2010

FinnAPL has announced its annual Foreset Seminar w3ill be held “somewhere in Southern Finland” on 15-16 April 2010. The programme should cover the versions of Dyalog, Windows and J and some databases.

Contact Kimmo Linna for details: kimmo.linna@finnair.com

STSC manuals

Leather-bound STSC APL manuals seek a good home: contact treasurer@vector.org.uk

JobWatch: UK

Reposted from JobServe:

Senior Python Developer - Automated Trading/Betting - London, Permanent
Skills: Python, Unix/Linux, Erlang, C, Haskell, APL/J/K, Lisp, Django

My client is a Sports Trading and Quantitative Research Software House based in West London with clients including market leading betting syndicates and high street bookmakers alike. They are presently looking for an exceptional Python developer to join a small team of industry leading technologists using cutting edge technology and quantitative techniques to overcome the betting industry's fundamental inefficiencies (namely a lack of automation, risk, efficient pricing and poor liquidity).

They are seeking a very strong Senior Python technologist with a broad range of technical experience acquired over 5 + years within a professional environment. Applicants with a strong interest in other Scripting languages, Erlang, Haskell and Unix/Linux would be especially sought after. As would those with experience developing reliable, fault tolerant applications.

The successful applicant will be joining an elite team working on the extension and improvement of an award winning Automated Sports Betting Systems, presently tailored specifically towards the Football markets, but with planned expansion to other sports. Previous experience working on similarly automated trading systems within finance or betting would be preferable, but those from outside the industry with a keen interest in Sport will be considered. Applicants will most likely be considered the technical authority on Python within their represent employer.

My client offers a technology focused environment which is relaxed (no suits, good work/life balance) yet technically excellent. They have already attracted some of the industries top talent by offering the best of both worlds, exposure to a broad range of automated trading and sports betting products in a high output environment with creative software house feel.

If interested, please email your CV to (see below).

Aston Carter Ltd is acting as an Employment Agency in relation to this vacancy.
Location West London
Country UK
Start Date ASAP
Rate £50k-£75k per annum + excellent benefits and bonuses
Employment Agency Aston Carter
Contact Oliver Doherty
Telephone 0207 997 1145
Fax 020 7997 1001
Email Oliver.Doherty.DD979.232A0@mail.jobserve.com
Web Link http://www.astoncarter.co.uk
Reference JSBR=TRADEPYTHON451
Posted Date 20/10/2009 18:15:26

APL The Next Generation

Stardate 2009. Ajay Askoolum finds Visual APL ready for the Visual Studio universe of polyglot solutions. Boldly go.

Exploring the beauty of J

Luis Diego Fallas has been exploring J on his blog Exploring Beautiful Languages.

R… statistics!

Simon Marsden reaches for the rich, open-source resources of the R language – not a big stretch with his APLX-R interface

Full moons and Sundays

Calculating when Easter falls ought to be tricky. Ray Polivka finds an old solution that needs just ten divisions.

Cocking & Darwin

Get evolution working for you. Romilly Cocking shows you how to grow your own programs using genetic algorithms.

JobWatch: UK

Python Senior Software Developer Hedge Fund/Finance London

Python Senior Software Developer/Python Programmer is required for exciting and progressive Hedge Fund Financial company based in London. They are looking for an enthusiastic and experienced in Python and Unix/Linux Software Developer/Python Programmer. An interest in functional programming and its application in the real world would be useful. The role would suit developers with at least five years experience and proven ability to deliver working software. You might also have some of the following skills in C, Haskell, APL/J/K, Lisp, Django and significant part of childhood spent hacking away in 8-bit assembly language. Join an exciting company with many opportunities to progress your Python career. Send your CV for immediately review and further details.
Location London
Country UK
Rate £45k to £80k Per: annum + Benefits: Excellent Benefits
Employment Agency Oho Group Ltd
Contact Burim Hykaj
Telephone 0207 622 5155
Email Burim.Hykaj.1C2CB.3892E@mail.jobserve.com
Reference JS055
Posted Date 15/10/2009 18:30:48

Reposted from JobServe

Below the SALT

Dyalog’s SALT lets you define functions, variables, namespaces and classes from scripts – but how to turn the workspaces you have into scripts? Dan Baronet shows it’s a snap

Beyond average

The Dfn version of the classic APL expression for the average or arithmetic mean is widely thought to be unimprovable. Roger Hui shows it’s not.

The problem with the world

Writing DotNet assemblies means handling multiple metrics. Get yourself ready with our GPS reader challenge.

Games of life and death

Military applications of APL? A weird wired patch from Solarbreeze’s Flickr collection.



Kudos to Devon McCormick for calling it in.

Correspondence: Mark Wickens

We don’t really have the comment thing going yet at Vector. So here’s a traditional letter to the editor from Mark Wickens

Just wanted to say thanks for the Dyalog at 25 issue of Vector. I went to blood donors last night and needed something to occupy me during the inevitable wait (an hour this time) and located this copy of Vector propped on top of a pile of books under the bed, couldn't decide whether I'd read it or not and just took it along. Absolutely fascinating, and a powerful insight into the trials and tribulations of a small software company, especially from the 'geek' perspective.

For my sins I have an interest in old DEC hardware (alpha, vax etc) so was especially interested in the bits about the 64 bit version and the slow VAX implementation. My first job was on the VAX porting team of a small software house – so a lot of the details rang true.

For a reason unknown only to myself I had an interest in getting VAX APL installed (which it is on a VAXstation 4000/90) and at some point in the future will get the time to hopefully provide a little information to anyone interested on the web. Are there any versions of Dyalog APL still kicking around for the VAX or Alpha? I'd love to have a go at getting it up and running.

Thanks for the article and all your hard work on Vector. The dedication of the team shows through in the quality of the publication.

Right back to the day job, Enterprise Java…

Regards,

Mark.
www.wickensonline.co.uk

50 in 50: Fifty programming languages in fifty minutes

Art or education? Or “pretentious drivel”? Guy Steele and Richard Gabriel presented fifty 50-word remarks on fifty programming languages at JAOO Århus 2008. Yes, APL too.

Kudos to Dave Thomas for the link.

JobWatch UK

Senior and graduate Python developers wanted with APL, J or K experience preferred:

Graduate Python Developers are required to work for a new emerging leader in the information security industry based in South West London.

You will be a part of a company that is growing rapidly in size and in reputation. As one of their Graduate Python developers you will be in a key position to be a part of something big and exciting, giving you endless opportunities to progress rapidly from a Graduate Python Developer to a Senior Python Developer position. You will receive an excellent starting salary, long holidays and discretional bonuses. You will ideally have had good academic experience working with Python and you will have a strong interest in Linux/Unix. You will have at least a 2:1 or above from a redbrick University and you will ideally have A's and B's at A-level.

A background in any of C, Haskell, APL/J/K, Lisp, Django would be beneficial but they are not essential.

Also…

Graduate Python Developers are required to work for a new emerging leader in the information security industry based in South West London. You will be a part of a company that is growing rapidly in size and in reputation. As one of their Graduate Python developers you will be in a key position to be a part of something big and exciting, giving you endless opportunities to progress rapidly from a Graduate Python Developer to a Senior Python Developer position. You will receive an excellent...

Contact Dan Seddon at Oho Group on +44 20 7622 6399.

Kx announces kdb+ 2.6 with nanosecond timestamps

Kx Systems has released version 2.6 of kdb+ with nanosecond timestamps as a datatype. Says Simon Garland:

Although a nanosecond timestamp goes beyond the needs of most people at the moment, we have decided to do this now, to give our clients a significant amount of flexibility. This is similar to our leading the market to 64-bits years ago, at a time when this was not seen as essential – now it has become the market standard.

Full press release…

JobWatch

Brian Becker is looking for help developing Software as a Service using Dyalog and ASP.NET.

Details…

Dyalog's 2009 Photos posted on Flickr

Here you are folks... My photos from this week's Dyalog APL 2009 conference in Princeton NJ, USA on Flickr.

Don't forget to watch my film blog: www.aprogramminglanguage.com

JobWatch: UK

A top tier Investment Bank is looking for a kdb+/q Architect to spearhead the architecture and development of a Greenfield Tick Data Capture system.
Working closely with IT heads, Traders and Analysts you will have excellent communication skills and strong understanding of cross asset class business including FX, Rates and Commodities.

You will have proven experience in designing and implementing quality controls within high-pressure investment banking environments with substantial exposure/ hands on experience of developing kdb+/q time series, relational database systems along with good Unix, perl and shell scripting Matlab and Oracle skills using Agile/Scrum development methodologies.

Based in London this is a permanent position

Please mail me on philip.greenwood@palmmason.com if you are interested.

JobWatch: Belgium

Reposted from JobServe…

APL (A Programming Language) Developer, Belgium, French/Dutch Speaking.

My Client, a Blue Chip Organization is looking for APL consultants, with at least 5 years of experience in IT industry, with extensive experience in APL (A Programming Language). You should have extensive experience within the financial sector with hands on experience in Investment management, Asset management and Pension Fund. Risk Management and Investigating issues and fixing issues will be an added advantage. French/Dutch speaking skills is mandatory.

Apply immediately for a telephone interview.

R2 International Ltd is acting in its capacity as an Employment Business in relation to this vacancy.
Location: Brussels, Belgium
Country: Belgium
Start Date: ASAP
Duration: 6 months
Rate: Excellent
Employment Business: R2 International Ltd
Contact: Raja Ilaya
Telephone: +44 (0) 207 100 2312
Fax: +44 (0) 870 490 6845
Email: Raja.Ilaya.3AFF0.8C17D@mail.jobserve.com
Reference: JS/RI/APL_DEVELOPER_BRUSSELS_20809
Posted Date: 20/08/2009 14:32:34

BAPLA09

Photos from the BAPLA09 conference in Reading have been posted. Also the presentations.

Speakers Corner at Princeton

We'll be setting up a Speakers Corner to collect our stories at Dyalog's APL Conference in Princeton, NJ USA September 13-16 2009. We're hoping to capture anecdotes about how APL is being used today. Have you had a really cool APL experience lately? We want to hear about it. Do you have a new idea you'd like to promote? Here's your chance to see it published on YouTube!

We are also interested in the human side. Have you had an interesting collaborative experience with fellow APLers you'd like to share? Romance?

We'll be taking the top stories to the finish line and posting them on YouTube. So, YouTube is the target for these stories. Keep it short. Keep it simple & rock on!

As a bonus you'll get to meet Iris Ng, my colleague and collaborator for APL: The Movie (more girls with gear!).

http://www.dyalog.com/dyalog_09.html

Tom turns round

In a short article in the July/August issue of IEEE Software, Tom DeMarco, one of the founding figures from the 1980s of the software engineering movement, recants.

DeMarco became a major influence on SE with his 1982 book Controlling Software Projects: Management, measurement and estimation.

In my reflective mood I’m wondering, was its advice correct at the time, is it still relevant, and do I believe that metrics are a must for any successful software development effort? My answers are no, no, and no.

What does he now think?

Software development is and always will be somewhat experimental.

So now even he knows. Direct Development – is its hour come at last?

Dyalog at 25

Mark Wickens writes:

Just wanted to say thanks for the Dyalog at 25 issue of Vector. I went to blood donors last night and needed something to occupy me during the inevitable wait (an hour this time) and located this copy of Vector propped on top of a pile of books under the bed, couldn't decide whether I'd read it or not and just took it along. Absolutely fascinating, and a powerful insight into the trials and tribulations of a small software company, especially from the 'geek' perspective.

For my sins I have an interest in old DEC hardware (alpha, vax etc) so was especially interested in the bits about the 64 bit version and the slow VAX implementation. My first job was on the VAX porting team of a small software house - so a lot of the details rang true.

For a reason unknown only to myself I had an interest in getting VAX APL installed (which it is on a VAXstation 4000/90) and at some point in the future will get the time to hopefully provide a little information to anyone interested on the web. Are there any versions of Dyalog APL still kicking around for the VAX or Alpha? I'd love to have a go at getting it up and running.

Thanks for the article and all your hard work on Vector. The dedication of the team shows through in the quality of the publication.

Right back to the day job, Enterprise Java...

Regards,

Mark.
http://www.wickensonline.co.uk

2009 Worldwide Programming Contest winners announced

Dyalog has announced the winners of the 2009 Worldwide Programming Contest.

First prize went to Ronald Chan. The judges commented:

Ronald’s submission showed impressive insight and analysis of the problems and the underlying mathematics, good use of classes. His submission ran considerably faster than any other entry. Ronald documented his solutions very well and many of his solutions were of a form to solve more general problems than the specific Project Euler problem presented. His efforts included error checking to capture invalid inputs.

Second place went to Chris King:

What set Chris’ entry apart was the brevity and compactness of his solutions. He made extensive use of operators, reduction, composition, power and limit. A good example of APL as a tool of thought.

Third place was taken by Maks Verver:

Maks had a commendable entry with good documentation, good use of APL, and good insight into the problems presented.

Vector congratulates the winners and looks forward to seeing Ronald in Princeton next month.

APL article on Wikipedia

At yesterday's meeting, BAA London drafted a new opening for the Wikipedia article on APL, and posted it on the APL Wiki for further work (especially collecting citations) before it goes on Wikipedia.

Take a look at the draft and see what you can contribute.

The Origins of APL - 1974

This is the Full 1 hour version: The Origins of APL - 1974

Job Watch: Canada

http://www.workopolis.com/EN/theme/Metroland/job/10802094

Senior Developer Time Series,
CPP INVESTMENT BOARD
Posted May 19, 2009

Toronto, Ontario, CANADA
Industry:
Company Url:
Financial
http://www.cppib.ca


Department: Information Services
Reference No.: Q110-136R
Position Type: Full-time
Location: Toronto,Ontario
Job Category:

With assets under management projected to grow to $250 billion by 2016, CPP Investment Board is one of the largest and fastest growing institutional investors in the world. Headquartered in Toronto, with offices in London and Hong Kong, the CPP Investment Board is governed and managed independently of the Canada Pension Plan by experienced and highly skilled investment professionals. Their job is to prudently invest CPP assets to help pay future pensions.

The Time Series Solutions team is looking for a forward thinking Senior Developer to help lay the foundation of a KDB-based enterprise-level time series data platform. The Time Series Solutions team is responsible for delivering time series data and related solutions and services to our business partners as well as to other groups in Information Services.

Candidates will have an Undergraduate or Graduate degree in the field of physical sciences, computer sciences, software engineering, Mathematics and/or equivalent and 7+ years of work experience within financial services, preferably investment management.

The role requires familiarity with data management systems, strong communication skills and a desire to work in a fast-paced agile-delivery environment.

Role Specific Accountabilities:

* Further the design and development of the early-stage KDB-based time series warehouse
* Collaborate with business and IS team members to conceptualize, design and develop Kdb+, Java or C++ software solutions which may include integration with database applications, web services and ESB services that support CPPIB's service oriented architectur
* Adhere to, advocate and follow development best practices
* Analyze and prepare wiki-based SDLC artifacts including system documentation and test plans and develop software in accordance with CPPIB SDLC standards
* Effectively unit test and perform integration testing on software components. Proactively assist quality assurance
* Create installation plans, validation plans and back out procedures to assist Infrastructure Management with software deployments
* Assist in the development and maintenance of a wiki shared knowledge base
* Conduct research on emerging application development software products, languages, and standards
* Provide level II troubleshooting support on a rotational, 7x24 basis

If you possess the following, we'd like to hear from you

* 7+ years of programming experience in Java, J2EE or C++ with emphasis on server-side development of enterprise-class applications and databases
* Senior development experience with enterprise market and reference data management systems
* Coding experience with time series systems or platform
* Exposure to the use of frameworks and open architecture designs
* Senior experience with the full software life cycle in larger collaborative development teams, with practice ranging from requirements analysis through deployment
* Strong communication and interpersonal skills
* Strong problem solving skills stemming from math, physics and/or a computer science background
* Strong initiative with an ability to grasp the big picture and actively seek ways to improve the status quo
* Strong commitment to guiding principles of integrity, partnership and high performance

Desirable Experience

* Experience programming in Q or K (Kdb+), APL, Sybase IQ, Vhayu, Fame, or Vertica
* Experience In-memory database programming language
* Financial qualifications such as CSC and/or CFA

Origins of APL: Excerpts

Ken Iversion and Adin Falkoff talk about APL in the beginning.

Origins of APL Intro

Here is the Intro sequence to the 1974 film Origins of APL

Dad & My APL Box

This is a refined version of the short film I showed at BAPLA2009. If you're a car enthusiast, it's worth another watch just to see the 1956 Caddy Adin Falkoff sold to Dick Lathwell in 1966 for $50!

Steve Pinker on Language & Thought

In an exclusive preview of his book The Stuff of Thought, Steven Pinker looks at language and how it expresses what goes on in our minds -- and how the words we choose communicate much more than we realize.

Functional programming in J

In the third instalment of his series, Neville Holmes introduces us to the structural ingredients

How language shapes thought

Professor Lera Boroditsky at Stanford has dragged the Whorf-Sapir hypothesis back into the laboratory. Her work discovers the ways in which thought depends on the languages we use. Iverson, rest easy; programmers, take note.

Article: "How does our language shape the way we think?"

APLX 5ß out now

MicroAPL has released APLX 5 for public ß-testing, with the new XML interface and inbuilt performance profiling.

Dyalog 12.1ß out now

Dyalog 12.1, with the new XL interface, is now out for ß-testing.

Stuck On You: APL, K & J - BAPLA2009

I'm sitting here back home in Toronto and it's raining and cold outside, just like last week in the UK. :) And I'm thinking about how well things just work out sometimes.

Never mind that APL still sports a strong community of eccentric, smart, thoughtful people and I was lucky to spend a couple of days surrounded by the clan. That's cool. Really cool. It feels like falling in love again with a long lost friend. Great. But forget about all of that.

The conference set the context for my project, my film, the movie, our movie - firmly in the now.

Because the conference was successful in its goal, to demonstrate array languages in the real world, I am now set to go. I have a decent overview of how the community has adapted our APL family of languages to radical changes in the computing world. Neat.

The programmer in me can appreciate the power of opening doors via XML & R interfaces. This tempts the Interactive Artist in me to say, give me the numbers, I'll make them dance in in Flash with ActionScript. But that's for later, for now I focus on the task at hand - the film.

In "APL in the New Millennium" Ken Iverson wrote that the differences in the APL community should be put aside. He wrote, we should be emphasizing the strengths and similarities between the different version of APL in order to present a unified face to the outside world. I think this is true. That we do have to do this. We are accumulating critical mass as slowly technology changes in our favour. Clearly, we all benefit from this critical mass and its associated momentum.

And just as clearly, computational power and data storage are no longer the expensive part of software development, labour is now a weighty expense. So, faster development is cheaper development. Go team, go! If I didn't love making this film so much, I'd be jumping right back in there with you. What a fun time! (And silly me!)

And the tension point, of course, is that clearly not all the APLs and APL derivative languages will survive forever. How do we compete in a competative market and co-operate at the same time?

Legally, of course, I mean.

Happy me - I get to watch from the sidelines.

But for now, I think the time for APL, J & K to really shine is here and that perhaps these old founding folks were smarter than they thought.

And they thought themselves mighty smart.

Life, the Universe and everything else at BAPLA09

It seems like a long time ago but the BAPLA09 conference is now well and truly behind us, the APLers have gone home and it just remains for us to report back to those who couldn't attend what we did and what happens next.

We saw some new members enter the APL community and from Europe, USA and UK some 49 people rallied to the call and hoisted the banner high. The conference was brisk and covered a lot of ground in just two days - 20 presentations, 1 AGM, 1 guest speaker and a band; I hope we didn't cram too much in. Nevertheless the assembled crowd still managed to find time to solve all of the worlds' problems either in the coffee lounge or, more than likely, the bar.

For those of you who could not attend the conference we plan to publish the presentations shortly as we managed to record the sound together with a screen capture for most of them. Details will follow soon.

The food was great, the company even better and the environment in the hotel very comfortable. Tea and coffee flowed throughout the day and some members of the party were even seen jogging around the grounds on occasion. I would have joined them but was just too busy (yeah right).

We had 20 or so presentations with most running between 30 and 45 minutes so the pace was brisk having time for only 10 minutes or so between talks. During our initial scheduling we had only planned for 7 presentations per day thereby giving much more time between for 'APLchat'. The demand from speakers took us rather by surprise so it was increased to 10 per day but even then we could not accommodate everyone!

Day 1 tried to be technically biased with Day 2 more application development - not sure if we quite managed to achieve that but if you close one eye and squint ... We covered topics from nursery school education through to universal string theory, and where application development is heading through to 138 Billion record databases (give or take a couple). Then just to be different our last formal speaker, Catherine Lathwell, showed us one film she had made and discussed another that she was planning - on APL. I hope that everyone found something to interest them.

It was a slight shame that the UK companies we had hoped would attend essentially didn't. This was not because they were not interested (which I guess is a good thing) but because of the current financial situation and budgets being so tight. The messages coming back was the same from all so maybe next time!

As has become the norm in APL conferences we had a banquet with music and a speaker at the end of Day 1. Our band 'The Casablanca Steps' were very entertaining and went down well. have a look on youtube - its much easier for you to take a look than for me to try and describe. Our speaker for the night was Johnny Ball who is a well known TV personality here in the UK. He gave us a passionate and entertaining after dinner speech on topics covering education, mathematics and the environment - and that certainly led to some discussion afterward!

Overall we had an excellent two days and I certainly felt it was worth the effort of organising it. So what happens in 2010? Well I for one have not yet recovered from 2009 but if we can generate the interest, come up with some new ideas, and get some evening seminars going who knows ... Let me know what you think and what you want.

Paul Grosvenor

(Chairman BAA)

“Program in APL” article in PC Plus magazine

The July issue of PC Plus magazine includes a 3-page article “Program in APL”, featuring the NARS2000 interpreter.

Countdown to the Worldwide Programming Contest

Now less thab three weeks before Dyalog’s Worldwide Programming Contest closes. Student entries will win $5,500 in prizes; others can earn as much introducing them to APL. And the winner gets travel to Dyalog09 from anywhere in the world.

We’ve started a countdown on the Vector front page.

Catherine Lathwell Rediscovers the History of APL

Most of you have probably figured out that my name is Catherine Lathwell and I have begun working on a documentary film about the History of APL.

Last month, on May 11, 2009, I spoke publicly for the first time about this film with the APL Bay Area Users' Group meeting at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View California. I live in Toronto and had booked a trip to Palo Alto to touch base with some of the old timer APL folks as an informal kick-off trip for the film. Curtis Jones found out about these plans because I plastered them all over cyberspace and organised the meeting as well as a personal tour of the museum by Dr. Leonard Shustek, Chairman of the Board for the Museum.

The Museum is awesome. At the time, a fully functioning Babbage Engine had taken up residence is the foyer. It's beautiful. Later, I got goose bumps in the lab where they are re-conditioning old machines. The lab feels like one those old machine rooms, only smaller. They had card readers (oh, my) and those old machine room printers - I can't even remember what they are called. I do however, clearly remember Charlotte Dawson giving me what-for about not tying my hair back when I was setting them up. Charlotte was my (s)hero and boss :) so, the hair went up.

Back at the Museum they are in the midst of a massive fund raising campaign to support an ambitious exhibit featuring a time line of computer history. And incidentally, as far as I can tell, we haven't made it onto the time line in software languages category on the museum's web site, so there is an opportunity for advocacy here. In any case, a problem they will have with their exhibition, and a problem I will also share is, how do you explain something abstract, like a computer language to a general audience?

The meeting with the APL Bay Area Users' Group went much as one might expect. I introduced myself and talked about my ideas for the film. I then showed a short video interview with my father, and this stimulated discussion about the good old days. Discussion was lively and folks have a lot to say. The group supports the film idea and everyone is eager to help out. This is great.

I'm now getting ready to fly to the UK tonight so that I can talk about the film at the BAPLA2009 conference. This is very exciting and fun. I have a lot of energy for this project because I truly believe it is important - and if not now, When? And if not me, Who?

I'm looking forward to seeing you all on Monday. Keep watching this space...

http://www.computerhistory.org/
http://www.aprogramminglanguage.com/

BAA London meeting 26 June

Next meeting will be at:

The Knights Templar
95 Chancery Lane
Holborn
London
WC2A 1DT
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=WC2A%201DT

On 26 June. 2pm downstairs for 2.30pm up.

We have a room booked from 14.30 'til 17.00 away from all the noise
and bustle and overlooking Carey Street

APL in the Real World – Conference to Focus on Application Development in the Coming Decade

For the first time in 10 years, the British APL Association is bringing all major vendors of terse software development languages together for insight and trends in fast application development and domain expert collaboration.

London 26th May 2009: The British APL Association (BAA) has announced their BAPLA09 conference which will give British software developers - and members of the BAA in particular - an opportunity to meet and discuss with the major vendors of Array Languages.

Paul Grosvenor, Chairman of the BAA says, “We feel that the APL languages have been overlooked massively over the past few years although the BAA has always provided a good forum for networking in smaller groups. However, more recently, we have noticed an increasing demand from many organisations, including large corporate entities within Finance and Engineering, particularly when it has come to integrating a larger degree of domain expert knowledge in the development process. With the increased development of web-based applications we have also seen some really fast tracked and successful applications spring up over the past 2-3 years. This is the direct background for wanting to bring together all the major vendors of APL languages for the first time in 10 years”.

The BAPLA conference follows closely in the footsteps of the QCon conference in London earlier this spring and particularly the track “Emerging languages in the Enterprise”. Ola Bini of Sweden hosted this track and he was quoted saying that programming languages generally are poor (or very poor) and he specifically wanted better programming languages which are less directed towards compilers and much more directed to facilitate better communication between developers and domain experts. APL has always been recognised as being exceptionally good at introducing domain expert knowledge into the development process.

The Vendors of APL programming languages presenting at the BAPLA09 conference include: UK based Dyalog Ltd and MicroAPL Ltd, US based APL 2000, J Software Inc and KX Systems. Other presentations will give insight into some of the new successful applications such as The Childcare Company’s online learning solution for Nursery Staff – LASAR, Bio-Check – an application developed by Optima Systems for monitoring patients or clinical trial participants’ progress by collecting a number of bio-markers (temperature, pulse, heart rate etc.) via PDA and SmartPhones.

The delegates will also come away with at least 2 new pre-releases of software.

The BAPLA Conference takes place at Wokefield Park in Reading on June 8-9 2009. For registration and further information please visit www.BAPLA09.com

About the British APL Association - BAA
The BAA is an independent organisation formed for the purpose of furthering the use of APL or associated languages and assisting the wider APL communities where appropriate. APL stands for “Array Programming Language” - an interactive computer language noted for its elegance, conciseness and fast development speed. It is supported on most mainframes,
workstations and personal computers and these days even PDA’s and Smart phones.

The BAA produces a quarterly publication Vector which is arguably the pre-eminent magazine for all things APL. Extracts plus the archive can be found at www.vector.org.uk. The membership of the BAA covers all ability and age groups, worldwide. Various contact groups from around the world can also be identified at this site.

British APL Association - C/O Optima House - Mill Court - Spindle Way - Crawley - RH10 1TT - West Sussex - United Kingdom.
Tel: +44 (0) 1293 562 700 Fax: +44(0)1293 562 699
Website: http://www.vector.org.uk/

First Derivatives announces BGC Adaptor

First Derivatives is pleased to announce the addition of a BGC Adaptor to its Delta product suite. The new BGC Adaptor allows clients to connect the Delta platform, which is powered by kdb+, directly to BGC Partners' eSpeed electronic platform for market data, execution and order routing services.

The press release announcing this addition can be viewed at: http://www.firstderivatives.com/Downloads/PR_First_Derivatives_BGC_Partners.pdf

The addition of the BGC platform to the Delta portfolio allows clients to develop fully automated trading systems across multiple global interest rate, FX and futures markets in a matter of days.

For further information on this exciting development and how it can assist your business please email bconlon@firstderivatives.com or bfitzpatrick@firstderivatives.com

Annual General Meeting 2009

The Annual General Meeting of the British APL Association will be held on Monday 8th June as part of the BAPLA 2009 Conference.

The meeting, at Wokefield Park, near Reading, will commence at 1:45 pm and will be followed by presentations from the following speakers:

• Stephen Taylor (Lambent Technology) - Who the H*** Needs XML?
• Sonia Beekman (APL2000) - The Product
• Kai Jaeger (APL Team Ltd) - Presentation Technology
• Roger Hui (JSoftware Inc) - Inner Product, An Old/New Problem
• Simon Garland (Kx)

If you intend to come to the meeting, please notify george@optima-systems.co.uk to book your place.

For further information about the conference and directions to Wokefield Park, please visit
www.bapla09.com.

Nicholas Small
Honorary Treasurer, British APL Association

01223-570850

treasurer@vector.org.uk

News from the Baltic Rim

Adrian Smith's report of last month's FinnAPL meeting in Tallinn is now online.

Masterminds of Programming features Adin Falkoff on the creation of APL

The APLs on YouTube

Impressed by the number of APL-related videos now on YouTube, I've addded to vector.org.uk a page indexing what I've found. More nominations welcome!

NARS2000

Bob Smith has released NARS2000, an ISO Extended APL compliant interpreter available as free open-source software for Windows platforms and platforms with Wine. (Just about any Linux machine.)

Vector, Volume 24, N°1

has gone to the printers at last. The impatient can download it as a PDF (2.7Mb) from the front page.

“Have you ever seen anything so elegant?”

Posted online: a review of Graeme Robertson’s A Practical Introduction to APL by Rebecca Burriesci.

Burriesci is a recent Stanford CompSci graduate now working for Google. This is a rare glimpse of how we look to a new generation.

A+ for Windows

Lorin Lund has announced his Windows port of A+ at www.parowansoftware.com.

JobWatch Canada

Apologies for delay posting this, which came in 21 April:

Toronto, Ontario, CANADA
Industry:
Company Url:
Financial
http://www.cppib.ca


Department: Information Services
Reference No.: Q409-236R
Position Type: Full-time
With assets under management projected to grow to $250 billion by 2016, CPP Investment Board is one of the largest and fastest growing institutional investors in the world. Headquartered in Toronto, with offices in London and Hong Kong, the CPP Investment Board is governed and managed independently of the Canada Pension Plan by experienced and highly skilled investment professionals. Their job is to prudently invest CPP assets to help pay future pensions.

The Time Series Solutions team is looking for a forward thinking Senior Developer to help lay the foundation of a KDB-based enterprise-level time series data platform. The Time Series Solutions team is responsible for delivering time series data and related solutions and services to our business partners as well as to other groups in Information Services.

Candidates must have an Undergraduate or Graduate degree in the field of physical sciences, computer sciences, software engineering, Mathematics and/or equivalent and 7+ years of work experience within financial services, preferably investment management.

The role requires familiarity with data management systems, strong communication skills and a desire to work in a fast-paced agile-delivery environment.

Role Specific Accountabilities:

* Further the design and development of the early-stage KDB-based time series warehouse
* Collaborate with business and IS team members to conceptualize, design and develop Kdb+, Java or C++ software solutions which may include integration with database applications, web services and ESB services that support CPPIB's service oriented architecture
* Adhere to, advocate and follow development best practices
* Analyze and prepare wiki-based SDLC artifacts including system documentation and test plans and develop software in accordance with CPPIB SDLC standards
* Effectively unit test and perform integration testing on software components. Proactively assist quality assurance
* Create installation plans, validation plans and back out procedures to assist Infrastructure Management with software deployments
* Assist in the development and maintenance of a wiki shared knowledge base
* Conduct research on emerging application development software products, languages, and standards.
* Provide level II troubleshooting support on a rotational, 7x24 basis
* Other duties as assigned

If you possess the following, we'd like to hear from you:
Soft Skill Requirements

* Strong communication and interpersonal skills
* Strong problem solving skills stemming from math, physics and/or a computer science background
* Strong initiative with an ability to grasp the big picture and actively seek ways to improve the status quo
* Strong commitment to guiding principles of integrity, partnership and high performance

Technical Requirements

* 7+ years of programming experience in Java, J2EE or C++ with emphasis on server-side development of enterprise-class applications and databases
* Senior development experience with enterprise market and reference data management systems
* Coding experience with time series systems or platforms
* Exposure to the use of frameworks and open architecture designs
* Senior experience with the full software life cycle in larger collaborative development teams, with practice ranging from requirements analysis through deployment.

Desirable Experience

* Experience programming in Q or K (Kdb+), APL, Sybase IQ, Vhayu, Fame, or Vertica
* Experience In-memory database programming languages
* Financial qualifications such as CSC and/or CFA

None Available
If you are looking for an exciting opportunity and to build a career in an innovative and dynamic investment organization, submit your resume by clicking on Apply Now below.
Apply to this job
We thank all applicants for their interest, however only candidates selected for an interview will be contacted. CPP Investment Board is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

57 characters

Craig Murphy, author, blogger, community evangelist, developer and speaker revisited a programming assignment from his student days learning Pascal, and invited readers to show how they would program it these days.

The problem was array-like and APLers crawled all over it. You have to wonder what Murphy's regular readers made of it all.

Here's the parallel discussion on comp.lang.apl.

World Wide Computer Programming Contest

Dyalog has announced $11,000 of prizes to be won in a world-wide computer programming contest.

Interview with Arthur Whitney

ACM's Queue magazine carries an inspiring, laugh-out-loud interview with KX Systems founder Arthur Whitney.

Among other gems, the king of fast, reliable, mission-critical systems advocates editing code to maximise beauty, and tossing and rewriting as often as one can.

Iversonians on Facebook

Early in 2008 I deactivated my Facebook account for being too annoying. Early this year I reactivated the account to help promote an event I was organising, and was pleased to find it better organised and much more useful.

There is now an Iversonians group on Facebook.

At Play With J

The first edition of At Play With J, collected from Eugene McDonnell’s columns for Vector has been published at Lulu.com.

The first edition reproduces the original Vector articles with only minor amendments. But J has evolved over the many years during which McDonnell wrote his column, and in the latest version of J not all the examples work as given. We expect the first edition to be of largely historical interest.

Volunteer editors are preparing a revised second edition on the J Wiki. Please help them if you can.

APL Bay Area Users' Group meeting 11 May

The APL Bay Area Users' Group (The Northern California SIGAPL of the ACM) will meet at 7 p.m. on Monday the 11th of May at the Computer History Museum.

Catherine Lathwell will speak on her rediscovery of the history of APL.

She witnessed the wild growth of APL in the 1970s as the daughter of Dick Lathwell, who worked with Larry Breed and Roger Moore to turn Iverson notation into APL\360. Now she wonders "What is APL's contribution to science?" and has begun producing a history of APL documentary film as an independent producer with CineFocus Canada.

More information at aprogramminglanguage.wordpress.com.

The talk will be at the Computer History Museum, 1401 North Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View, CA 94043

Officers for the APL BUG will be elected at the meeting. Anyone interested in standing for office should contact the chair, Chuck Kennedy.

Those interested in supper before the talk will try the new Pizzeria Venti at 1390 Pear Avenue, Mountain View, CA 94043 650:254-1120. Please RSVP to Curtis Jones if you're planning to come to the restaurant.

Remembering Mike Kingston

Vector is sorry to report the death last month of Mike Kingston. Norman Thomson writes:

He worked at IBM Headquarters at North Harbour in Portsmouth during the 70s and 80s, and was instrumental both in persuading the Finance and Planning departments there to use APL extensively, and subsequently in giving them excellent technical support. An offshoot of this was George Kunzl’s system which subsequently became ADATUM, which, if I have got it right, eventually became part of Dyalog. [Don’t think so. Ed.] As one of the ‘back room’ people he was always present at APL events and conferences, whether APL, BAPLA, or SIGAPL. Outside work he lived in Winchester and was a Lib Dem Counsellor in Hampshire, or perhaps just a candidate, I can’t quite remember which.

JobWatch UK

Position: Python Developer (Graduate/Junior) LAMP
Location: London
Rate: £25k - £35k Per Annum + Bonus (Paid Monthly) + Benefits
Skills: Python Developer (Graduate/Junior) LAMP, Perl, PHP, TCL, Lisp sought by growing provider of automatic trading and hedging software solutions. Your role will focus on the UI, working closely with one other lead interface developer, developing new systems and maintaining changes for around fifty APIs. The company pride itself on its technology and is looking for a bright computing graduate (also need good A Levels) who is passionate about Open Source programming and has a healthy distrust of Microsoft and Java. There will be future opportunities to work across many new areas of their products and expand your skill set.

They are looking for a bright computing graduate (also need good A Levels) who is passionate about Open Source programming and has had some exposure to Unix/Linux and Open Source Scripting languages, ideally Python but will also consider Perl, TCL, Lisp or PHP. Desirable technologies include: C, Haskell, APL/J/K, Django, Erlang, functional programming.
Type: Permanent
Start Date: ASAP
Advertiser: Client Server
Business Type: Employment Agency
Contact: David Cooper
Phone: 0208 390 8390
Email: mailto:David.Cooper.967C8.9D093@mail.jobserve.com
Ref: JSBB/1700E/0603
Visa: Applicants must be eligible to work in the specified location
Date: 06/03/2009 11:32:40
Apply Now: http://www.jobserve.com/E68F84B2E2D427FEFZ2228569CD2DE.jsap
Full Job: http://www.jobserve.com/E68F84B2E2D427FEF.job

BAA London

Report of BAA London chapter meeting Fri 27 Feb.

Catherine Lathwell's APL Diaries

Catherine Lathwell has announced her documentary film project. The project blog is at www.aprogramminglanguage.com

BAPLA09

The BAA has announced its 2009 conference

Conway's Game of Life

John Schole's YouTube demonstration of Conway's Game of Life as a single APL expression is now on our About the APLs page.