Re: APL in Colorado, USA? Am I the last one?

On Apr 23, 1:22=A0am, vess_irv...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 wrote:
> Sometimes is gets lonely, in a professional sense, being an APL
> developer, especially here in the Rocky Mountain West.
>
> I would love to hear from APL users in this region; say, in Montana,
> Wyoming, Colorado and/or New Mexico. Say hello and maybe there is a
> free beer in the deal if I am passing through your town.
>
> I know of one large APL application in SE Denver that is still being
> maintained after 27 years of service. The company is investing no
> significant development resources into this application .... just fix,
> patch and pray it still works.
>
> Perhaps an actuary here or there is using APL.
>
> IBM Boulder manages their APL2 product 3,000 feet below me (in
> Colorado we measure geography in altitude, not distance). Do they use
> it themselves? I don't know.
>
> I am getting the sinking sensation that I may be the last person for
> 500 miles around who is actually doing serious development in APL.
>
> I am a graduate mechanical engineer, so I would be doubly pleased to
> hear from another engineer who uses APL (I have never previously met
> one). Recently I began toying with the idea of doing something with
> APL, ActiveX and AutoCAD to "parameterize" the creation of drawing
> objects more effectively then using the current standards, VBA or
> AutoLISP. Holding me back on this initiative is the thought of making
> a sales call on a large engineering shop, facing a sea of hundreds of
> engineers, and getting that dreaded "What is APL, never heard of it"
> question.
>
> Do I really need that kind of grief?
>
> Oh well, please chime in if you live a mile or more above sea level!
> LOL.
>
> Regards,
> Vess Irvine (STSC alumni)
> Estes Park, Colorado

Hi Vess,

I'm only about 30 feet above the sea here in Denmark (but I still
remember Norway :-). I'm afraid I don't have much of an idea about APL
in Colorado. I'd be very surprised if there isn't some lurking in
unexpected places...

Really wanted to comment on your worry about the "What is APL, never
heard of it" question ... I know this used to be a big issue some
years ago, but at the moment we very rarely hear the question. If you
say "My solution is delivered as an ActiveX - or better yet as a
Dotnet Assembly", then this will assume it was written in something
"normal". And if they do ask how it was implemented and you say "I use
an specialist array-oriented language called APL", people tend to just
say "uhum" these days. They have become accustomed to big players in
the market using stuff like Python, Ruby and F#. The world is rapidly
becoming less language-bigoted than it was in the DotCom boom years,
where anyone could have a million dollars to rewrite anything in C++,
losing 90% of the functionality on the way. People actually get fired
for that sort of thing today - halleluya!

So if you have a good idea - go for it! If you would like some advice
on how to wrap your solution up so nobody can tell you are not using C
(or embed it in a web page so there really is no way to find out),
drop us a line, we are more than happy to help anyone trying to get an
APL-based venture off the ground!

Regards,

Morten Kromberg,
Dyalog Ltd.