AAADev2004 - Advanced APL Application Development

Workshops - October 5, 6 and 7, 2004 - Toronto

A three-day intensive, "hands-on" focus on key APL techniques - past, present and future. Join us for one, two or all three days of this suite of APL workshops, featuring:

Day 1: "APL Technical Tune-Up" - a one-day intensive workshop focusing on the key elements needed to develop efficient and maintainable APL systems, and a prerequisite to Day 2 & 3 for APL beginners or those needing a refresher (for users of any APL product)

Day 2: "Excel, ADO and APL - Under the Hood" - a repeat of our popular workshop on dynamically linking APL and Excel, using either application as the user interface, including an introduction to essential VBA programming; also, an introduction to ADO - Active Data Objects and APL - linking an APL interface to SQL-based database systems (for both APL+Win and Dyalog APL users)

Day 3: "APL+WebServices - from Application to Implementation" - a one-day intensive workshop focusing on the new APL+WebServices product from APL2000

All students will have access to a PC/Windows computer and the latest version of the APL interpreter of choice (Dyalog APL, APL+Win). Day-3 is APL+Win-related only.

Please see below for workshop details...

Date and Location:
October 5, 6 and 7
9:00 am to 5:00 pm
CTC Computer Training Centre
4 King Street West, Suite 1520, Toronto

Instructors:
1. Richard Procter - APL Borealis - APL specialist
2. Brian Oliver - APL Borealis - APL specialist
3. Jon Capps, dataReference Inc., TX - web services specialist (Day 3)
4. Chris Greaves - Excel/VB/Windows specialist (Day 2)

Cost:

• any 1-day: $395, any 2-days: $695, all 3-days: $995; plus applicable taxes
• includes continental breakfast and lunch
• payment by: cash, cheque, MasterCard, Visa

Registration:

• advance registration and payment required - please register early
• ABI reserves the right to cancel one or more days of training if student numbers are insufficient

Detailed Workshop Outlines

A one-day intensive course focusing on the key elements needed to develop efficient and maintainable APL systems.

Workshop attendees may use and install APL+Win or Dyalog APL on the classroom PC, and the workshop will provide usage details for these techniques for both products.

Topics

1) Enclosed Arrays

• an introduction to these data structures for beginners, a refresher course for non-beginners
• how to create and work with enclosed arrays
• when to use and not use enclosed arrays
• typical applications, including partitioning techniques

2) Performance and Efficiency

• what factors affect performance
• performance measurement and analysis
• solutions for typical performance problems

3) Event Handling, Debugging and Coding Techniques

• the APL execution stack and APL events
• event handling tools, techniques and pitfalls
• control structures, flow control

4) Utilities, Wheels Already Invented

• key utilities and product-supplied workspaces
• date-handling utilities and techniques
• other third-party utilities

5) Maintainable APL Code

• hard-coding vs. "table-driven" techniques
• globals vs. arguments and results
• introduction to code management systems

Day - 2: Excel, ADO and APL - Under the Hood - Wed. Oct. 6

Workshop attendees may use and install APL+Win or Dyalog APL on the classroom PC, and the workshop will provide usage details for these techniques for both products.

1) Introduction and Terminology

• terminology - OLE, COM, ActiveX, Object Oriented, client/server, etc. - we'll explore these terms and sort out the jargon
• today's APL - an overview of key features offered by APL products for these techniques

2) Excel Components

• an overview of the Excel spreadsheet object, its properties and methods and the Windows/GUI object-oriented paradigm; the Excel Help facility
• APL's view of Excel - what the Excel spreadsheet object and its properties look like from within APL; objects and functionality for driving Excel

3) APL in Command - reading/writing Excel data from the APL environment

• environment - the APL programming environment; data-type considerations; array-oriented logic
• reading - bringing data from Excel into the APL environment
• writing - populating Excel spreadsheets with APL data
• tools - typical examples and readily-available utilities for constructing systems

4) Excel and Visual Basic - key components and techniques

• Excel/VB - an introduction to Visual Basic within Excel; the Excel/VB user interface and programming environment for code and GUI development
• Excel/VB macros - common tools and techniques for creating, running, and debugging macros

• GUI controls - designing the Excel-driven interface using common GUI controls and techniques

5) Excel in Command - the APL calculation engine

• the APL object - creating the APL.dll; calling APL functions from Excel
• APL workspace objects - special-case objects; enclosed arrays; function argument/result passing
• communication - error handling and APL to Excel messaging

7) Fine Tuning - polishing the application for performance and functionality

• Excel/VB tips and techniques - better programming techniques; array handling, etc.
• APL tips and techniques - better programming techniques; array handling, etc.
• avoidance techniques - common pitfalls and how to avoid them

8) ADO - Active Data Objects & APL

• parallels between ADO and Excel from the APL perspective
• moving data back and forth from APL to ADO databases
• exercises and examples

This workshop focuses on products from APL2000 Inc. only.

Jon has experience with applications and systems from a wide variety of business sectors including banking, energy, financial and manufacturing. While currently working in depth with Microsoft NET architectures and software, he has a background with IBM hardware as well as other programming environments such as Java and APL.

Jon recently got excited about APL again when WebServices was released, and has used it to create his latest venture: Talisman Games (www.talisman-games.com)

Workshop Outline (tentative)

APL WebServices

• What is it?
• Where does it fit in?
• Installation

Architecture

Security
• Interact with desktop?
• Running as a Service
• HTTPS
• Password protection

Web Farms

• What is it?
• State vs. Stateless
• Cookies

Database Access

• ADO
• Streams
• APL utility functions and examples

Web forms

• APL generated HTML / DHTML
• Microsoft InfoPath 2003
• Some APL functions

Web applications

• Design
• Redirection
• Return Codes
• Secure Areas – password protection

Reports

• XML, XSL, XSLT
• APL Functions to play with XML
• XSL and XSLT example

Exercises

Exercises will be used throughout the day to illustrate the topics being presented, with plenty of opportunity for hands-on learning.

What is APL+WebServices ? (from the APL2000 website)

APL+WebServices (APLWS) is the Windows service that makes it easy to publish information on your intranet or the internet. APL+WebServices runs as a service. A service is a special program that runs in the background and performs certain tasks. The APL+WebServices not only receives HTTP requests but also activates other components such as APL Workspaces. APL+WebServices, for example, handles Web browser requests by sending requested Web pages back to the browsers. APLWS also provides the basis for providing web services to either clients or other servers, as well a providing a multi threaded communications layer for APL workspaces.

Registration Form - APL Borealis - AAADev2004 Workshops