[Bug-apl] Question on installing GNU APL on Windows

[Richard Levine]

Hi – Do people think there may be an audience for more documentation / learning aids for installing GNU APL under Windows? Does anyone have any pointers to “easy” documentation for installing GNU APL on Windows, in the sense of exactly the steps to do this, for someone who has used Linux / Unix in the past but has little recent experience with it?

 

I am running Windows 7 and am quite experienced with installing and running APL interpreters (and J) in Windows (various versions). I have for the first time installed Cygwin, added tar, downloaded apl-1.5.tar.gz, and “un-tarred it”. Now I’m not sure how to proceed, having never done this before. I have a basic knowledge of Unix. I have several times read all the README* files, the GNU APL Home Page,  and gone through a great deal of the GNU APL mailing list archives (bug-apl). It all looks great, but for me I can’t find something for my level.

 

If there’s a document with exactly the steps, could someone point me to it?

 

I’m thinking that perhaps there is a need for more documentation for experienced Windows users who are really quite unfamiliar with Linux, who want to get up and running with GNU APL.  There could be a large audience of Windows users who are or might become interested in assessing and using GNU APL, but aren’t that familiar with installing and compiling under Linux, and then setting up APL keyboard mappings.

 

I did find a tutorial on Youtube (actually there are several) that was really helpful for installing Cygwin.  Perhaps there are videos showing how to get GNU APL up and running under Cygwin?

 

PS – GNU APL looks great. This is my first experience with APL under Linux and GNU APL looks like a very solid project. It’s certainly looks worth the effort going up the Linux learning curve.

 

Richard Levine