Quick Start Guide
The Basics
The following instructions should get you up and running with a basic workflow in the Dyalog development environment. Increase your knowledge with more introductory materials.
Installation
The links below go to summaries of installation instructions for Dyalog installers that can be downloaded from our website.
Licences
There is now a single licence agreement for Dyalog APL, covering both commercial and non-commercial usage. Unregistered installations (those which do not have a valid serial number) are covered by the Basic licence.
Using or entering a serial number other than the one issued to you is not permitted. Transferring the serial number to anyone else is not permitted. See full licence terms and conditions.
Get the APL Font and Keyboard
APL can be entered using a software layer on top of your normal keyboard input.
Learn about Typing APL
Using Dyalog
The notes below describe the basics of writing code and saving your work. For a more detailed walkthrough of installing Dyalog and beginning to use the development environments, see Chapter 2 of Mastering Dyalog APL.
Interactive REPL
2 + 3
5
Save your work
Create a link between the active workspace and a folder on the file system:
]LINK.Create # /tmp/MyProject
Linked: # ←→ C:\tmp\MyProject [directory was created]
Now, when you make a change using the editor (after closing it with Esc), a file in that folder will be created or updated.
Variables and dfns defined using the assignment arrow in the session are not saved to a linked folder by default. Use ]LINK.Add mything to save the source for mything with your code.
Tacit functions cannot be saved as text source, they must be wrapped in a tradfn or dfn.
Create, trace, edit and continue
To create a function, press Shift+Enter with the cursor on a name.
You can now write the function’s definition. See APL Course: User-defined Functions for details.
Pressing Esc will close the editor and save your changes in the currently active workspace.
Use Ctrl+Enter to trace through the function line-by-line.
Use Shift+Enter to edit code while tracing and press Esc to save those changes and continue execution.
Quit Dyalog
)OFF to exit Dyalog. Resume your work
When you next start Dyalog, your can scroll up in the session log to see your previous input and output.
This session log is saved in the location specified by the LOG_FILE configuration parameter.
Use ]LINK.Create again to resume working on the code you saved earlier.
