APL Wiki
Ellis Morgan
Email: <wiki AT SPAMFREE ellismorgan DOT co DOT uk>
I started using APL in the early 1970s and now I am retired I still use it for fun. I have written a couple of articles for vector, you will find the first at http://www.vector.org.uk/archive/v103/morgan103_81.htm.
The second described a quick and dirty Sudoku program. It was intended to stop me wasting too much time solving problems because I would know my computer could do it better then me. Then it occurred to me that I could write a better program if I learnt more about how to solve them. Now I have a large and dirty Sudoku program and still waste time working them out myself.
Status
I can only update pages at the moment if conditions are right. I do not understand why, but Kai tells me that the symptoms I see are possibly caused by problems with my internet connection. The symptoms are that pressing the buttons "Edit (text)"> "preview" causes a long waiting period followed by an all mauve (Firefox) or all white (Chrome) screen. The same happens when I press "save changes" but when I reload the page the changes have happened. So when I am getting these problems I prefer to try again later, but, if I am determined to do it now I make small changes and save without previewing. I expect Kai and Phil find this annoying, you can see the effect by pressing the "info" button on this page.
Living out in the sticks a couple of miles from the exchange the internet connection provided by demon/C&W/BT is not the fastest or the most robust. My measure of whether my connection is acceptable is if I can listen to radio 4 without gaps in the sound. At the time I last got these symptoms I could listen to radio 4, watch TV on iplayer, and buy from amazon. It seems the Wiki needs a better connection than most websites.
Today, 7 August 2011, the problem suddenly disappeared between 9:40 and 9:45 BST. I noticed because "save changes" reacted instantly and so I risked "preview" which is now working and if it lasts I can make a more substantial update.
Of course it may be more than just my connection: events at the wiki itself; the connection between Demon and the rest of the internet; a neighbour with a machine that interferes with my connection; what is going on in my computer; and so on. I do not know how to find out more. I do know that my chance of having a good update session are decreasing month by month.
Testing
I looked at the page Utf8orNot and saw ... We can demonstrate the possibility by imagining an Anglo-Saxon APLer writing the following:
a Шׯ2+𨨨w ⍝ where capital 'Ð' and small 'ð' eth are functions and 'a' and 'w' are arrays
where the text in quotes disappears off to the right of the window.
more testing (or learning)
I took a screen shot of what I can see in the Utf8orNot page and decided to to show it here. That took me to HelpOnImages where the thumbnail example seemd what I wanted.
That was not a good idea, what happens when you click on a thumbnail like this is confusing enough with a proper picture but when your image is a bit of the wiki it is even stranger.