Ramblings 6/7 - APL & C for Mac

[Jay Fields]

> Mac C & APL
> By J Fields
> 
> While Macintosh seems to be the computer for the rest of us, what about all 
> of the people who are use to the run-of-the-mill type of old standard 
> computers?  What about people who like the usefulness of business 
> languages like COBOL for coding business programs, or the speed and 
> compactness of machine language for requirements that are speed or space 
> critical?  Fortunately, new tools are coming along.  In recent months we've 
> seen the arrival of both high-level languages like Basic, Forth, and Pascal 
> (perhaps we'll even see COBOL soon); as well as machine level tools like 
> MacASM for getting down to the   nitty-gritty bits.  (MacASM, by the way, is 
> pronounced MAC-A-S-M with 'asm' spelled out so it doesn't sound like 
> something out of Master's & Johnson's....)
> 
> My own observation is that the MAC is turning out to be a very good 
> platform to implement both high-level and low-level tools on.  Not only is 
> the Mac user interface appropriate for writers of executive memos and high-
> tech scribblers, but it also lends itself well to programming -- I no longer 
> have to write the same code twice.  The first language to show me this was 
> HIPPO-C.  
> 
> Level one of Hippo-C comes with a well written and easy to use tutorial.  
> How many languages have you learned by trudging through the books 
> entering sample programs one at a time by hand?  With Hippo you can cut 
> and paste the samples right out of the tutorial on your screen.  Want to 
> experiment?  Well, you can use many of the same editing techniques you've 
> been using in popular word processing programs to modify the sample 
> programs.  So, instead of the program printing out Chris Somebody's name on 
> your screen it can print out yours, or perhaps some favorite salutation, 
> "Damn the torpedoes...."
> 
> Today something new and exciting came along.  Dr. Jerry Brenan, who works 
> in the University of Hawaii's Psychology department, introduced me to APL 
> on the Macintosh.  This was particularly exciting because I've not even seen 
> APL advertised for the Mac, and did not know it was available.  Don't all 
> software producers start advertising months in advance of product 
> availability?
> 
> Now, if you're like I was before I knew about APL then you're probably 
> sitting there asking yourself to reconsider your initial decision to read this 
> particular article.  Such would have been my reaction at the very mention of 
> a 'new language.'  The minds and bodies of programmers seem to develop 
> some sort of defense mechanism with time.  
> 
> "We are not going to suffer these long hours while you learn every new thing
> that comes along." they seem to say.  
> 
> They may have a point.  After all, you've hardly touched that 'good ole'  
> MDL-2+ after the time you spent learning it (never mind what it cost -- the 
> investment you made, the backup disks, and the surprise upgrade to super-
> duper version 1.2XXX-rev. A to mod. II).  Still, APL is worth checking out.  It 
> might just knock your socks off.
> 
> APL stands for "A Programming Language."  It's a language that seems 
> particularly well suited to working with numbers.  Jerry showed me how, 
> with five or six characters, he could almost instantly fill an array with 
> 10,000 randomly generated numbers.  "Hm, seems kind of fast," he 
> murmured.  Four keystrokes later the sum of all 10,000 numbers was 
> displayed just as quickly.  It was my turn to be impressed.  "Try doing that 
> in Applesoft," I thought to myself.
> 
> Psychologists, like Dr. Brenan, can use APL to perform statistical analysis.  In 
> fact, Dr. Brenan has programmed, in APL, a statistics package called STAT 1 
> that runs on PC-DOS machines.  He will very likely be producing it for the 
> Mac soon judging from his reaction to the Mac.  Rather than try to interpret 
> what he presented to me, here are a few paragraphs from his brochure on 
> STAT 1:
> 
> 	"STAT 1 brings powerful research tools to the office desk.  It is ideal 
> (a) as a statistics learning tool; (b) as an introduction to computer-based 
> research; (c) as a set of statistical analysis tools.  STAT 1 takes data from 
> initial coding and documentation through printing the final analysis with 
> titles and footnotes.  STAT 1 helps the user pick appropriate statistics with 
> its 'statistical decision tree,' and provides topical help screens at the touch of 
> a key.
> 
> 	"STAT 1 is reasonably priced, easy to learn, requires no special 
> language, and comes with a comprehensive manual that focuses on 
> application examples.  STAT 1 requires no computer programming, but 
> presents all choices in easy-to-use menu form.  The user simply selects a 
> procedure from the menu and presses Return.  STAT 1 prompts for critical 
> inputs through each step of the analysis.  The program is ideal for offices and 
> agencies in which a number of people must analyze research, but do not 
> have time to master complex mainframe statistical packages.
> 
> 	"STAT 1 provides all basic statistical procedures, beginning with 
> simple descriptive statistics crosstabulations and data transformation, and 
> working through to powerful correlation, analysis of variance, and regression 
> routines.  STAT 1's full-screen editor gives the user complete control over 
> data entry and correction.  Robust data transformation procedures help 
> correct for bias in data, and unique date-arithmetic functions provide a tool 
> for analyzing administrative data."
> 
> There, I couldn't have said that better myself.  I want to stress that Dr. 
> Brenan also offers a text version of the STAT 1 manual that is suitable for 
> use as an introductory text for teaching statistics.  My feeling is that if 
> you've never studied statistics, but think you could benefit from applying 
> statistics in your work environment, then STAT 1 would be a good package 
> to pick up both for learning stats and for later applying them.
> 
> STAT 1 is offered at $179.95 and requires an IBM-PC or a "99% compatible" 
> personal computer with 256K bytes of memory and two floppy disk drives 
> or one floppy disk and one fixed disk drive.  It will use an 8087 math 
> processor chip automatically if one is installed, and uses all available 
> computer memory.  To order contact me via Compuserve 76174,456; USENET 
> ..islenet/jayf ; SOURCE CL3035; phone, 808/521-4487; or mail, c/o IDSC, 1251 
> Heulu St. #107, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822-3085.  If you have a bankcard or 
> can send a check I'll relay the order to a stocking dealer.
> 
> STAT 1 is an example of the usefulness of APL.  If you have math intensive 
> applications APL is probably a good tool to add to your kit bag.  Other uses I 
> can think of are for stock market analysis, financial modeling, engineering, 
> and business management.  APL comes with its own tutorial built in, a 
> terminal program for hooking up with mainframes -- my bet is that you 
> could use this to hook with Dow Jones for rapid-fire price analysis -- and a 
> menu generator.  
> 
> Don't overlook this last item.  Have you ever wondered how programmers go 
> about setting up the menus on Mac with all those buttons, text boxes, and 
> icons?  APL is worth getting just to see how it's done.  However, you do not 
> have to buy APL.  You can pick up the free demo disk.  The demo disk has all 
> of the same features, but does not allow you to Save.  If you want a copy, 
> send an INITIALIZED blank Macintosh disk labeled with your name & 
> address along with a SASE and $1.00 to the above address; I'll fire a copy of 
> the APL sample back to you.  The buck is to buy peanuts for the chipmunks 
> that keep my disk drives spinning -- you gotta feed the chipmunks 
> occasionally or they go away.
> 
> What has become increasingly clear is that the MAC is not just the machine 
> for the rest of us, it's THE MACHINE FOR ALL OF US.  Being able to learn a 
> new language like C or APL with out laboring over the manuals is a big 
> advantage.  Being able to pull down the tutorial anytime you need to while 
> you're in the middle of coding something is also helpful.  But the icing on the 
> cake was seeing Dr. Brenan's reaction to the MAC (I was calling him "Jerry" 
> until I sat down to write this and discovered with alarm that he's a phd, 
> someone I may well end up taking classes from someday, and someone who 
> should certainly be addressed as Dr. so-and-so...).  
> 
> "This is fast," he said.  "This is much faster than the 8088."
> 
> -Cheers-
> J Fields


Sorry for leaving out word about the people who make APL for Mac, and
thanks to Mark & Dave for calling my attention to this omission.  It was
one of my primary objectives to give them some well deserved credit in
the review...guess I got a bit excited and forgot.  Anyway....

Apl for the MAC is called PortAPL, and can be ordered from:
	Portable Software
	60 Aberdeen Ave.
	Cambridge, Ma. 02138

	(607) 547-2918


Price is $275.00 Plus $10.00 for shipping.  VISA & M/C are acceptable.

Now, if one of you wizards would send me the pill you take to learn this
stuff faster :)

Aloha,
J Fields