Re: [Bug-apl] Free APL reference documentation, any takers?

[Alexey Veretennikov]

Hi,

Indeed I was also thinking on creating such a documentation even in terms of notes for myself. I don't always use Emacs for GNU APL (I run it on a device where I'm not able to compile emacs but fine to compile GNU APL), so I would be happy to read this documentation from within the interpreter, for example using like
]help ⍣

or

]help ⎕FX

Br,

/Alexey

2017-04-11 10:22 GMT+02:00 Elias Mårtenson <address@hidden>:

The Emacs mode for GNU APL contains a (small) reference manual. Really nothing more than a short paragraph on most system functions, enough for the integrated documentation features to work. It's been pointed out to me that it would be nice if the documentation was more complete, particularly with examples of the use of each function in addition to the abstract explanation as to what it does.

Now, I feel that this documentation doesn't really belong in the Emacs mode. It belongs in GNU APL itself. Emacs should simply access this from the APL runtime when needed,

Thus, I would like to suggest creating an integrated reference documentation inside GNU APL itself. We could start with what I have in the Emacs mode, and then add more.

The following file contains the current documentation in the Emacs mode:

https://github.com/lokedhs/gnu-apl-mode/blob/master/gnu-apl-refdocs-bsd-license.el

Each element contains three strings:

• Invocation type (monadic, dyadic, etc)
• Name of the function
• One-line summary of the function
• (optional) Longer description

There are two questions:

1. Is anybody willing to help out with expanding in the reference documentation?
   
2. For Jürgen, are you willing to put this into GNU APL itself instead of keeping it in the Emacs mode?

Regards,

Elias