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In the last 25 years, implementations of IBM Corp.'s APL have grown significantly in their ability to interact with the computing environment, including its associated software tools. Component file systems provide facilities that allow APL arrays to be stored in and retrieved from external files. They are designed to be fast, straightforward, and simple to use in APL applications. With an extended interface provided in APL2 Release 3, it is possible to declare an APL variable, function, or operator to be external to the workspace and to exist in another "namespace." Since namespaces are accessed on a read-only basis, they may be shared among users. The wise APL application developer creates an application as a set of building blocks that can be replaced as better technology becomes available.