Improved sharing of APL workspaces and libraries
James G. Wheeler · ACM SIGAPL APL Quote Quad · 1981
Years of experience have revealed deficiencies in APL's traditional library structure and its facilities for managing saved workspaces. As part of the development of a new file system, STSC undertook to resolve these deficiencies in a revised design. The rules governing the use of shared workspaces have been broadened and placed under the control of an access matrix , giving the user great flexibility in controlling how invidual workspaces are used. APL libraries have been generalized and likewise placed under access-matrix control. System facilities are provided that allow any workspace-management action to be performed under program control. The concept of the APL workspace has hardly changed since the earliest APL systems; it is worthwhile to wonder why. To programmers weary from battling the job control languages of that era's operating systems, the workspace must have seemed a concept of charming and startling simplicity. To the computer novice, who found in APL a shortcut through the maze of technical lore, the notion of the workspace was quickly assimilated into intuition.