 Colleagues express awe when I share my results Customer: University of Puerto Rico
Author: David Dooner
Country: Puerto Rico My experience with APL2 includes classroom and research activities. APL2 is available to faculty through the IBM Academic Initiative Program for such activities. Presented below is a gear related scenario on how APL2 was and is currently being used as a research and development tool. As part of my research, a system of coordinates, geometric relations, and a fabrication process were proposed. The gearing industry is a "hands-on" community that demands proof of concept to warrant serious consideration of an alternative technology. The many mathematical relations developed are computationally intensive and need to be translated into computer code and tested. APL2 was selected over Fortran, C, MathCad, and Matlab to develop and demonstrate the functionality of these mathematical relations. Colleagues express awe when I share my results and the amount of computer code used to obtain these results. Moreover, I consider myself a "non-programmer" within the software community, yet APL2 allows me to write the necessary software to "quickly" obtain results. Examples include polynomial root solving, eigenvalue/eigenvector, FFT (Fast Fourier Transform), and matrix manipulation routines used in noise and vibration prediction or FEM (Finite Stress Analysis) stress analysis of gear elements. I estimate that time and effort to write this same code using another computer language to double or triple. The growth of APL2 and its support of GUI (Graphical User Interface) programming has further allowed me to continue with APL2. In order to demonstrate the benefits of the developed mathematical relations and supporting computer code, a GUI package is being developed such that engineers within the gearing community can implement this technology without being burdened with mathematical relations. This GUI interfaces with the APL2 graphics package GRAPHPAK to display line graphs, bar charts, pie charts, contour plots, and surface plots. APL2 also provides support to output data in Excel files for use by other software packages. This GUI along with all supporting software is implemented using a single environment, APL2. It is my impression based on communication with fellow engineers that this same GUI package would require an "experienced" programmer using another programming language. I am able to distribute this GUI using the APL Runtime Modules where gear designers can use this software without purchasing APL2. Moreover, APL2 automatically generates the GUI using Unicode. APL2 has allowed me to remain focused on a new gear technology without getting distracted with software development. I feel that much of what I have proposed and developed would not have emerged as such without the availability of APL2. I continue to use APL2 in the "what-if" or "show-me" scenario and recommend for all results oriented people. I have been a user of APL2 for the past 15 years and gauge that the language continues to evolve. I look forward to each release as well as participating in its growth. David Dooner | 
