APL as an embedded language

Abstract

This paper describes a new approach to the development of customized applications. It first discusses two problems whith APL programming: writting efficient programs, and building user interfaces. It then describes the proposed solution, that consists in writting the skeleton of the application in an efficient compiled language, using some predefined building blocks, and developing the other parts in APL.This approach is closer to integrated systems, such as spreadsheets, or data-base managers, than to traditional APL applications executed under the control of an interpreter. It differs from these integrated systems in the fact that the development cost is kept low, so that new applications, highly customized for specific end users may be built from scratch, or more exactly, from predefined building blocks.