.TH APLCVT 1 "28 July 1983"
.UC 4
.SH NAME
aplcvt  \- convert APL workspaces between PDP-11 and VAX formats
.SH SYNPOSIS
.B aplcvt
[
.B \-v|\-p
][ file ... ]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.I aplcvt
performs the necessary transformations
to produce a VAX format workspace from
a PDP-11 format workspace,
and
.I "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).
.PP
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,
.I 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.)
.PP
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.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
apl(1) \- the APL interpreter
.SH BUGS
Occasionally,
.I 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.