Adaptive library documentation for APL

Abstract

For many years, to many people, “APL” has meant “A Personal Language” — a superior tool for an individual working on problems arising out of his own work. But success breeds expansion, and successful APL users have naturally tried to spread the word. Now, APL application has been broadened to include “non-personal” uses too.While personal uses of an APL system place few demands on documentation — most of what is needed can be kept in the user's head, supplemented by a few clues in the workspace and program — what is adequate for personal use becomes inadequate and finally detrimental for public use. Thus, when it comes to documentation, APL is in the same boat as other languages — but this is not a familiar place for APL to be. APL users have come to expect a freshness and innovation in their APL systems, but at present these attributes are conspicuously absent in APL support for documentation. This paper proposes an adaptive documentation system which, although not limited in concept to APL systems, is the kind of innovation most likely to find quick implementation and acceptance in the APL community.