Improved sharing of APL workspaces and libraries

Years of experience have revealed deficiencies in APL's traditional library structure and its facilities for managing saved workspaces. As part of the development of a new file system, STSC undertook to resolve these deficiencies in a revised design. The rules governing the use of shared workspaces have been broadened and placed under the control of an access matrix, giving the user great flexibility in controlling how invidual workspaces are used. APL libraries have been generalized and likewise placed under access-matrix control. System facilities are provided that allow any workspace-management action to be performed under program control.

The concept of the APL workspace has hardly changed since the earliest APL systems; it is worthwhile to wonder why. To programmers weary from battling the job control languages of that era's operating systems, the workspace must have seemed a concept of charming and startling simplicity. To the computer novice, who found in APL a shortcut through the maze of technical lore, the notion of the workspace was quickly assimilated into intuition.