[aplusdev] Article on A+ and Linux

[Alexander Skomorokhov]

> 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.

Please, write me directly if you are interested to discuss porting of your
OLAP
tool to A+/Linux.

> philosphy.  I think most APL vendors havent hit the radar because they
> dont understand the community.
I am not happy about this also, but it's understandable. They make money on
interpreters.

> 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.
Agree. At least I'd like to agree:-)

> 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.
GUI of A+ is also cross platform! I do not think that wxPythod adds
something
reasonable to a native A+ GUI. At least for OLAP stuff.

> I dont recall the license of A+, but if someone can point me to
> it, and it
It's right on the front page of A+ website:
http://www.aplusdev.org/
and it says:
A+ is a powerful and efficient programming language. It is freely available
under the GNU General Public License.

> 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.
Good idea.

Regards,
Sasha.