The impact of microcomputers on APL
Philip A. Van Cleave · ACM SIGAPL APL Quote Quad · 1982
The advent of the Motorola 68000, a 16/32 bit microcomputer, now makes it possible to have a full-featured APL system and not have to sacrifice speed or the multi-megabyte workspace that you have become accustomed to (or, more likely, fantasized about) on your timesharing mainframe. This paper will discuss how the Motorola 68000, and the coming generation of 32-bit microcomputers will affect APL's direction and future, as well as open a vista of applications that previously could not be done in a practical manner using APL. The Computer Company's APL.68000 will be our case in point. The term “mainframe” when used in this paper will refer to both large IBM 370 class computers as well as minicomputers (HP 3000, DEC 2020, etc.).