Today's APL2 News from APL Products and Services at IBM Corporation
Issue Number 12 - Summer 2007
Configuring APL2 Made Easy
Service Updates
Since the last Today's APL2 newsletter, two service levels have been shipped for Workstation APL2, and two enhancements to mainframe APL2 have been made available via PTF.
Workstation APL2
Service Level 9 was shipped in November 2006. Enhancements include:
Language deviations removal
Support for multiple Processor 11 names files
GRDATA command for AP 207 on Unix systems.
COM output parameters
Drag and drop files on AP 145 windows
Service Level 10 shipped in May 2007. In addition to the ini file and Unicode support discussed elsewhere in this issue, enhancements on Windows include:
Automatically loaded fonts
A column ruler in the editors
Improved syntax checks in the Object Editor
Enhanced AP 145 support for scrollbar events
Mainframe APL2
Support for measuring performance using Service Units instead of CPU time is available on TSO with PTF UK19354.
PTF UK25406 enhances Processor 12 and AP 211 with the ability to access DSNTYPE=LARGE datasets.
Workstation APL2 Adds .ini File Support
In Workstation APL2, there are more than a dozen properties of your session that you can customize using invocation options. There are several more that can be defined using environment variables. The invocation options include things like workspace size, session id, national language, APL statements or programs to be run, and various options for auxiliary processors. The environment variable options define paths to be used to locate workspaces, fonts, Processor 11 names files, and shared variable processor files.
Starting with Service Level 10, configuring all Workstation APL2 platforms is made easier by the addition of an APL2 profile file, apl2.ini. Users can create this file and put all their session customizations in one place. The file uses a standard format to assign values to keywords. APL2 will automatically search the apl2.ini file after looking at the invocation parameters and before looking for corresponding environment variables.
There are four sections currently defined for apl2.ini:
[Invocation Options] can contain values for any of the invocation options defined in the APL2 User's Guide.
[Libraries] contains definitions for workspace libraries.
[Shared Variable Processor] contains settings for Shared Variable Processor options.
[Session Manager] defines custom toolbar buttons for the Windows Session Manager.
The Configure APL2 Tool
On Windows, this new tool lets the user create and modify the ini file using a standard properties notebook. To invoke the tool, click on the Configure APL2 icon in the APL2 folder or the Configure APL2 button on the Session Manager toolbar.
For more information on the apl2.ini file, see the Installing and Customizing APL2 chapter of the APL2 User's Guide.
Unicode and APL2
Workstation APL2 on Windows includes significant new support for national language data.
The Object Editor now uses Unicode to display function and operator definitions and array values. The Object Editor supports fonts that contain characters that are not elements of the APL2 Atomic Vector. These characters can be used in quoted character literals, array values, and comments.
The File Editor also uses Unicode and can read and write files containing Unicode data.
The APL2 development environment supports input of national language characters through standard Windows keyboard layouts. Windows utilities, such as Character Map and the Input Method Editor (IME), can also be used.
Auxiliary Processor 145 has been modified so that all the Unicode properties behave consistently for all types of windows. New Unicode properties and utilities have also been added for dialog, menu, and control attributes.
Finally, the APL2 User’s Guide has been updated with new documentation for Double Byte Character Set support so developers can understand exactly how to build fully Unicode enabled APL2 applications.
APL2 Available Free to Educators
The IBM Academic Initiative is a no-charge offering developed to support higher education institutions. The IBM Academic Initiative makes it easier for educators to access IBM products and technologies. APL2 is available for free through the IBM Academic Initiative! For more information, visit ibm.com/university.
