Generating APL printouts with a2ps

Abstract

Printing APL dialects is, quite often, a frustrating task, for there is no simple method to convert the code itself into suitable output, for instance, PostScript or Portable Document Format. Generally speaking, printing of APL has relied on the interpreter itself, or perhaps converting the workspaces using an automatic transliteration scheme. In this article, I introduce a practical solution to the problem of printing APL dialects which does not require the use of the interpreter nor transliteration of workspaces provided a "source" file is available. After a typesetting solution described elsewhere [de Almeida, APL Quote Quad 34(2) (2004) 28] I implement a less complex, direct printing approach using a Type 1 (or outline) APL font, an encoding vector, and Gnu's a2ps, a program which converts files or standard input to PostScript, and I further provide an illustration of conversion of APL "source" into PostScript, ready for printout (or for visualization on the screen) using Morgan Stanley's A+ dialect.