udub
05-22-07
A sizeable share of our Spring Systems website is about Statistics and Math. In addition to availing yourself to the software resources that we offer for dealing with these things, we also feel that you may have some interest in resources that allow you to try out some things on your own. APL and its variants (j, a+, Q'Nial, Glee, k... etc.) represent viable approaches to providing interactive environments that can process array data in a compact and elegant form. These resources are ideal for prototyping mathematical and statistical ideas. They're not bad with TEXT array data either.
One way to find portals to APL and its variants is to type "APL programming language" into a search engine (Yahoo, Google, MSM, Ask etc.). You can also link to the article on APL that's in WIKIPEDIA, which gives a pretty good overview of APL and its relatives, along with some useful links.
Another way is to start with a few specific APL related links:
(SEE: SIG APL)
(SEE: REX SWAIN'S APL INFO)
(SEE: VECTOR MAGAZINE)
(SEE: FREE APL INTERPRETERS and COMPILERS)
APL interpreters are available for platforms ranging from 8 bit DOS and CPM, to 32 and 64 bit .NET Visual Studio and everything in between. Some can also translate their source code to c, and from there to a compiled .EXE file. Many are FREE, while others cost more than the computers they run on.
At Spring Systems, we've used IAPL(DOS), FreeAPL(WIN), and j(both DOS and WIN). All are FREE for personal use. The first two (IAPL and FreeAPL) may show some quirky behavior on Win XP and Vista. Running DOS versions within a virtual DOS enclave such as DOSBox may solve compatability problems. Ditto for Win 3.1 on top of DOSBox for early WIN programs like FreeAPL.
We should also point out that FreeAPL includes two workspaces (STATPACK and HELZER) which have functions for performing many of the computations that we treat in this site. Be aware however that these workspaces have no sample data or documentation. You'll have to decipher what's there by yourself.
While we present APL source code to illustrate some of our concepts, we make no attempt to explain or teach APL or any of its variants. That's something you'll have to explore on your own. So far, we've used/made reference to APL in several pages on the Spring Systems site:
(SEE: THE DEPENDENT VARIABLE)
(SEE: DIMENSION REDUCTION)
(SEE: MAP(c) MODEL)
(SEE: CROSSTABS)
(SEE: NEWSLETTER)
There will probably be other pages on our site where we use or refer to APL in the future. Real soon now. Heh.
Except for the NEWSLETTER reference, the other links show actual working SOURCE CODE. This could be regarded as OPEN SOURCE. Everything is there in plain sight to be studied, copied, used, etc. Real transparent, real open. Like other OPEN SOURCE. Heh.
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