NAME

aplcvt  − convert APL workspaces between PDP-11 and VAX formats

SYNPOSIS

aplcvt [ −v|−p ][ file ... ]

DESCRIPTION

aplcvt performs the necessary transformations to produce a VAX format workspace from a PDP-11 format workspace, and vice versa.  The workspace formats differ because the word sizes of the two machines are different; hence, pointers have different lengths.  In general, any PDP-11 workspace can be converted to VAX format.  VAX format workspaces can be converted to PDP-11 format provided they are “small enough” (if a VAX workspace is too large to be converted to PDP-11 format, it is also too large to run on the PDP-11 APL interpreter). 

In the usual case, the workspaces to be converted are specified on the command line.  The output files have the same names as the input files with a “.pdp” or “.vax” extension.  (If the input file name ends with a “.pdp” or “.vax” extension, that extension will be stripped off first.)  Alternately, aplcvt can be used as a filter.  (If either the standard input or the standard output are directed to a tty, a syntax message is output.  It is highly unlikely that a user will want a converted binary workspace printed on his or her terminal.) 

The default direction of conversion is to convert to the format used by the host machine; i.e.  on a PDP-11 the default is to convert VAX format to PDP-11 format.  If desired, the direction may be specified explicitly by a “−p” or “−v” flag. 

SEE ALSO

apl(1) − the APL interpreter

BUGS

Occasionally, aplcvt will bomb out with an error when none really occurred.  This seems to be due to a bug in the standard I/O library. 

4th Berkeley Distribution  —  28 July 1983