[aplusdev] Article on A+ and Linux

[Derek Neighbors]

> > I'd be intertested to hear someone pontificate on the sociology of the
> > linux/apl user.

I will say that I work for a government agency that uses a third party 
vendor tool that includes Dyalog APL.  We use it for OLAP structures and 
decision making.  

I **loathe** proprietary software and was curious about making an OLAP 
engine on GNU/Linux.  As being at the mercy of an unmerciful vendor is 
painful.  I was pointed to this list for APL.  APL's nature alone makes it 
seem ideal for making an OLAP engine.  I posted some messages here 
about it, but havent taken the time to investigate much.

> to include A+ in major Linux distributions (at least like what we saw today
> in Brian's links on OS X).

A few things.  GNU/Linux is much a community more so than most 
'technologies' and part of the community (a large) part is licensing and 
philosphy.  I think most APL vendors havent hit the radar because they 
dont understand the community.

A+ seems to be more in tune to what the community is about so probably has 
the best chance of showing up on the radar. (IMHO)

> > cross-section between the stereotypical apl and linux users.
> I have right the opposite opinion. Both (APL and Linux programmers) are
> professionals (you know VB programmers for Windows after 3 months courses,
> but to write APL or work under Linux you need much more). Linux is a kind of
> religion and then operation system. Same is true for APL. I teach APL for
> Windows (Dyalog), but all my post graduates students work with A+ under
> Linux. Nobody touched A+ or Linux
> before. I noticed that those who was good just in APL adopted to A+ (that's
> naturally) and to Linux(!) very
> quickly and good. Those who wrote for me great reports in MS Office, but
> thought on {iota}3 before answer
> are NOT able to work both in Linux and A+.

I tend to agree, that APL is more 'advanced' language wise ,like say other 
'less poplular languages' including lisp, and those attracted to the 
language 
are more likely to find appeal in Linux as an Operating System as well.

I think perhaps part of the social circle issue is that Linux has mainly 
been for hackers and now that its coming into the 'business' world in more 
capacity than simply infrastructure, you will see more applications 
written, of which many would be good to write in APL.

 > > The linux apl user is an interesting character.
> I am sure it will be quite an interesting character, but it has to appear on
> the earth first. Hope it happens SOON.

If A+ wanted to do something incredible for the linux community it would 
meld the best of worlds.  It would provide an OLAP data store and 
functions in A+ and publish an API that could be understood by several 
languages specifically Python would be a good one.

If A+ is cross platform wxPython would perhaps make a good front end.  I 
say this mainly because there are lots of people that would like the 
backend functionality (and willing to treat it like a black box) but not 
willing to actually learn APL.

I dont recall the license of A+, but if someone can point me to it, and it 
adheres to debian policy for licensing.  I can take a look at making some 
debian packages for A+ and can try to get them included into the unstable 
version of debian.

Derek Neighbors
GNU Enterprise
http://www.gnuenterprise.org
derek at gnue.org