Friday 16 October

1. 09:30
   09:30–13:00 FA1 Workshop

   Beyond the Primitives: Using Iteration and Recursion in APL

   Martello Suite (first floor)

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   Traditional programming and idiomatic APL written in a data-parallel style can sometimes feel incompatible and impossible to use together. Dyalog APL provides a number of features around traditional iteration that can be used to great effect or that can greatly undermine APL's biggest advantages. Understanding how traditional concepts like iteration and recursion fit into the idiomatic APL landscape can greatly improve the architectural clarity and maintainability of your code, as well as giving you a better overview of large APL applications.

   In this workshop you will explore patterns for writing iterative, recursive, and stateful code in APL. There will be a focus on how to take best advantage of the many constructs for control flow available in Dyalog, such as structured statements, labels, and recursion; you will learn how to use these features to write programs that are easy to read, debug, and maintain while avoiding the pitfalls that can undermine the quality of your code.

   Keywords: control flow, recursion, loops, idioms

   09:30–13:00 FA2 Workshop

   Problem Solving with APL

   Pier Suite 2 (first floor)

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   APL users have access to a wide range of techniques to solve any given problem; the terseness and versatility of APL means that different approaches can be tried to see what works best in a particular scenario.

   In this workshop, you will solve a variety of problems; we will review our solutions together to enhance our problem solving skills.

   Keywords: problem solving, exercises

2. 13:00
   13:00–14:00 Lunch Artisan Restaurant (mezzanine floor)
3. 14:00
   14:00–17:30 FP1 Workshop

   Performance from the Bottom Up

   Pier Suite 2 (first floor)

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   Many APL applications have a reputation for tremendous efficiency and performance, but users might be surprised to discover that their code does not run as fast as they would like, or that it uses too much memory. Because APL isn't like other languages, it's important to understand how to get the most from APL's unique design to maximise your performance while minimising your programming efforts.

   In this workshop you will gain a strong foundation in using the APL primitives fluently to write performant programs. After going through the fundamentals of how the interpreter executes APL code, you will use that knowledge to build up a library of performance techniques. You will also have the opportunity to apply your knowledge with hands-on exercises and discussion.

   Keywords: performance, algorithms, optimisation, array model

   14:00–17:30 FP2 Workshop

   Introduction to Link

   Pier Suite 1 (first floor)

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   Most actively-maintained APL systems have switched or are switching to using text files for source, rather than workspaces or component files. This allows integration with source code management systems, build and test frameworks, and of course to experiment with "agentic AI". If you have not yet experienced the benefits of text-based source, or you understand the benefits but need help to get started, this workshop is for you.

   Link allows you to use Unicode text files to store APL source code, rather than "traditional" binary workspaces. The workshop includes:

   how to find and use the documentation.

   the types of APL objects that can be handled, and how each is represented as text.

   how Link synchronises changes made inside and outside the active workspace.

   migrating an existing workspace to text-based source.

   using GitHub to manage "Linked" source code.

   Keywords: text files, text-based source, source code management, Link

   14:00–17:30 FP3 Workshop

   Problem Solving with APL

   Martello Suite (first floor)

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   APL users have access to a wide range of techniques to solve any given problem; the terseness and versatility of APL means that different approaches can be tried to see what works best in a particular scenario.

   In this workshop, you will solve a variety of problems; we will review our solutions together to enhance our problem solving skills.

   Keywords: problem solving, exercises