The Use of APL in Digital Systems Courses at the University of New South Wales

The teaching of undergraduate and postgraduate courses in digital systems, including computer architecture and switching theory, at the University of New South Wales, has for the past three years been based on an extensive use of APL (A Programming Language). This language is a development from Iverson's original language [1] which itself was designed for the precise formulation of algorithms in mathematics and in the hardware and software areas of computing systems. APL has been available now for a number of years on several time-sharing computing systems as an interpretive, interactive language for terminal use. It has proven to be an ideal medium for the description, design, and test by simulation of digital systems, and the specification and execution of switching theory algorithms. This paper summarizes those aspects of APL which make it particularly favorable for these applications, discusses its incorporation into the course work at the University of New South Wales, and gives examples, from several areas, of project investigations carried out by students using the language.