APL+ History

Read the counter ClockWise history of APL+ below

Mr. Kenneth Iverson invented a notation to help him delivering an EDP lecture called "Automatic Data Processing" in years 1955 to 1960 at Harvard University. This interesting notation has been first turned into a computer language called APL (A Programming Language) in the early 60's when Ken joined IBM. It was implemented on the IBM 360 mainframe series in 1966 as an interpretative language together with its own time-sharing system.

2004		APL+Win 5.0 is released by APL2000 This new version contains various enhancements which make APL+Win even more perfect, but is mainly a first step for APL+Win in the .Net Internet world. The major new features are the following: new dynamic memory management: APL+Win now makes dynamic use of PC memory (this vritually eliminates WS FULL messages) a lot of APL Session enhancements including improvements of the Preferences, Colors and Search and Replace dialogs. complete and correct mouse wheel support dramatic speed improvement for )COPY, )PCOPY, ŒCOPY and ŒPCOPY enhancements to the RichEdit object autocomplete property for Edit and Combo objects Info method available for all classes improvements to ŒNI sockets a new Registry object (aplutil.dll) a new APL+Draw object (apldraw.ocx) the possibility to create APL+ Web Services the possibility to embed APL+Win application within the browser (only through Consulting with Lescasse Consulting)

2001		APL+Win 4.0 is released by APL2000 at the end of the year This new version includes a major enhancement for APL developers: an APL Grid Object! The new features of APL+Win 4.0 are: new Grid object with 118 properties, 49 events & 37 methods new VB-like dot syntax for ActiveX objects comment block of lines in APL Editor & Session with one keystroke move block of lines in APL Editor & Session space by space custom color support in Editor & Session Manager support for International search/replace many new properties, methods & events for existing APL+Win objects all objects support context-sensitive help and "What's This?" Help Combo Boxes now supports images and indents all objects have a noredraw property helping reducing flicker many enhancements to the Printer object RichEdit now supports bullets, indents, paragraph numbering increase of Maximum file size for APL & Native files new VB-like syntax when using ActiveX objects file quota increased to 200 completely revised documentation with 3 Manuals - User Manual - System Functions Manual - Windows Reference Manual

2000		APL+Win 3.6 is released by APL2000 It is a free Release to all APL+Win 3.5 users! The new features of APL+Win 3.6 are: WatchPoints -- a debugging aid to see when a function variable changes Initial workspace with same name as .EXE is loaded unless you specify a workspace Windows Interface Enhancements - a place property to remember where forms were located - possibility to put images on menus - menus as radio groups i.e. menu items working as radio buttons - improved specification of images for the icon and pointer properties - additional styles for the Selector object (tabs orientation, etc.) - new Printer object properties: default bins bin papers paper - new Printer object method: DevNames - new methods to enumerate collections in ActiveX Objects: EnumStart EnumNext EnumEnd - Unicode arguments to the Draw method Text operation

1999		APL2000 becomes a subsidiary of Cognos

1999		APL+Win 3.5 is released by APL2000 This latest release brings a major enhancement: the ability to develop and use our own objects at the system level. Lescasse Consulting develops and releases APL+Win 3.5 Objects The new features of APL+Win 3.5 are: support for Windows 3.1 and 16-bit stuff removed ability to create your own objects at the system level with ŒWI customization session toolbars floating and docking APL session toolbars value tips for variable and functions bookmarks support in APL editor Euro character symbol support F1 opens context sentitive help based on word under cursor new Code Walker integrated debugging environment new CommandBar object new CommandButton object new DateTime object improvements and extensions to Imagelist, Listview, Picture, Printer, Progress, Spinner, Tree and System objects relative namings of objects (similar to relative paths under DOS) ability to use alias names for objects through Links enhancements to ŒWCALL allowing to directly pass structures a APL nested arrays (this greatly simplifies making DLL or API calls from APL) improvements to the COM support new User Commands (DLL Resource Browser, ActiveObjects and ActiveControls Browser, DLL Dependancies Tree) new delivered workspaces (Web Server example, Desktop and Registry function APL+Win 3.5 is used by many large Corporations (Banks, Insurance Companies, Car Manufacturers, etc.) worldwide as well as by thousands of Consultants and small Companies which are thus more competitive on the market. Many small companies market worldwide products written in APL+Win.

1998		APL+Unix 5.3 is released by APL2000 TCP/IP Sockets support through the same ŒNI system function as in APL+Win language extensions (n-Wise reduction, scalar dyadic functions with axis, ravel with axis, partition functions, ŒAT function timestamps, etc.) control structures (compatible with APL+Win) take and drop with axis performance improvements (Match, Membership, Find, Iota primitives) abitlity to store any APL array to a character vector through ŒDR (thus allowing to save it in a non APL file for example) and to restore it later

1998		APL+Win 3.0 is annouced by APL2000 Enhancements include: a new Media object allowing to develop Multimedia applications (using .ANI, .MID, .WAV, .AVI files) COM support allowing direct 2-way interfaces with Visual Basic, Excel, Word, Java, VIsual C++, Delphi, ... TCP/IP support through a new system function ŒNI (allowing to develop FTP, HTTP, SMTP, APL Web Server applications, etc.) an APL+ODBC server allowing to access APL data from other applications Listview and Tree color printing amny new poperties, events and methods .DOT file to type APL characters within WinWord

1997		APL+Dos 6.0 is released This new version includes: control structures (100% compatible with APL+Win control structures) new APL2 primitives and operators (100% compatible with APL+Win ones)


1996		APL+Win 1.8 & 2.0 are released by APL2000 Extensions to the APL language include: ravel with axies, partition function, scalar dyadic functions with axis, N-wise reduction (a yearly moving average on a 120000 element vector V is calculated as: (÷12)×12+/V), ŒAT automatic function timestamps Extensions to Windows programming includes: tooltips Selector and Page objects to create forms with Tabs Form validation made easy with onExit and onExitError events Listview object Support for OCX/ActiveX controls RichEdit object Tree object etc. The first APL2000 User Conference is help in Orlando, Florida (October 23-25, 1996)

1996		APL2000 buys the APL business to Manugistics. APLPLUS becomes APL+. APLPLUS PC becomes APL+PC™, APLPLUS II becomes APL+Dos™, APLPLUS III becomes APL+Win™ & APLPLUS Unix becomes APL+Unix™*.

1995		*APLPLUS III version 1** Manugistics introduces the first pure 32-bit version of APL. APLPLUS III includes high level system functions like ŒWI and system variables like ŒWSELF, ŒWARG, ŒWEVENT, ŒWRES to easily develop Windows Applications. For example creating a window is as simple as: 'window'Œwi'New' 'Form' and changing its background color to red is as simple as: 'window'Œwi'color'255. Programming Windows with APL becomes much easier and far easier than with C/C++. Windows programming is made in an object oriented manner. At this time Windows 95 does not yet exist: APL+Win has been designed and developed under Windows NT and is a 32-bit application which may run under Windows 3.1 with Win32s. APLPLUS III version 1 includes: Royaltee free Runtimes native MDI-based APL session manager and editor dynamic interactive debugger 16 objects, 40 properties, 28 events, 24 methods direct support of Windows 16-bit and 32-bit API direct support of 16-bit and 32-bit DLLs DDE support control structures for structured programming (:if ... :else ... :end, :while ... :end, etc.) support for Windows common dialogs etc.

1994		*APLPLUS II version 5, 5.1, 5.2** ???

1993		STSC is renamed Manugistics, Inc.

1993		*APLPLUS II version 4** For the first time APLPLUS II contains a Windows Agent* which allows to develop Windows applications with APL. However this mostly requires to do low level Windows API programming which is a complex process.

1988-1992		*APLPLUS II version 2, 3** STSC extends the APL*PLUS II language, adding primitives and operators to make it more compatible with IBM APL2.

1990		*APLPLUS PC version 11** STSC releases the latest version of the APL*PLUS PC system

1988		*APLPLUS II version 1*, the next generation of APLPLUS for the PC is released by STSC. APLPLUS II is a 32-bit application and is really a revolutionary system at the time, since it lets you use all available PC memory for your workspace. The 640 K barrier is definitely broken and APL customers can no develop much larger applications while most other languages and development systems on the PC are still confined to the 640 K. APLPLUS II is an extremely fast system: computations on hundreds of thousands or millions of numbers are a snap. APLPLUS II is quickly known as "zippy*".

1987		*APLPLUS Unix*, the first version of APLPLUS under Unix systems is released by STSC

1986		*APLPLUS PC version 7** is the first version of APL using Virtual Memory. When there is not enough memory in the workspace, APL*PLUS PC automatically swaps out to disk objects which it does not currently need and brings them back in as they are needed. This automatic and transparent technique breaks the 640K limit and brings a few more 100K to the APL workspace.

1982-1990		*APLPLUS PC version 1*, the first version of an APL on the PC is introduced by STSC APLPLUS PC is highly compatible with APLPLUS Mainframe and is delivered with a number of utility workspaces which are also available on the mainframe. APLPLUS PC is a DOS application, limited to 640 K During the 80's STSC refines the APLPLUS PC system, adding many new system functions and variables such as ŒPEEK, ŒPOKE to peek or poke into memory, ŒCALL to call Assembler 86 routines directly from APLPLUS PC, ŒINT to use DOS interruptions from APL, etc. APLPLUS PC is very well adapted to the PC and dozen of thousands of customers worldwide purchase and use this system. APLPLUS PC however suffers a bit (like most other DOS applications) from the 640K barrier limit.

1970-1982		STSC (Scientific Time-Sharing Corporation) is created with some of the people who originally implemented APL as a language at IBM. STSC creates *APLPLUS™*, a new version of the APL language with many extensions oriented toward allowing to develop business applications. APLPLUS includes a very powerful file system using such functions as ŒFCREATE, ŒFTIE, ŒFAPPEND, ŒFREAD, ŒFFREPLACE ... This system is so powerful that it is still in place in modern versions of the APL language like APL+Win and is still much easier to use and much more powerful than any traditional file system. Other improvements include another powerful feature: the ŒFMT formatting function. During the 70's STSC provides Time Sharing services based on APL*PLUS and gain several hundreds of large customer companies (banks, insurance companies, etc.). During this period, STSC continues to extend the language adding new primitives and operators.