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Scope and Field of Application

This standard defines the programming language APL and the environment in which APL programs are executed. Its purpose is to facilitate interchange and promote portability of APL programs and programming skills.

This standard specifies the syntax and semantics of APL programs and the characteristics of the environment in which APL programs are ex ecuted.

It also specifies requirements for conformance to this standard, including the publication of values and characteristics of implementation properties so that conforming implementations can be meaningfully compared.

This standard does not specify:

implementation properties that are likely to vary with the particular equipment or operating system used;

required values for implementation limits such as APL workspace size or numeric precision;

the data structures used to represent APL objects;

the facilities available through shared variables.