Dyalog APL Link AutoReload reliability across filesystems
0 reputation · 29 Mar 2021, 10:30 UTC
Dyalog APL version 18.0 introduced the Link mechanism (⎕SE.Link) to map APL namespaces to external directories, facilitating source-controlled development environments. To ensure the interpreter session stays synchronized with external changes—such as those from a version control system—the ⎕SE.Link.AutoReload property can be enabled.
The behavior of AutoReload depends on the host operating system's file-notification system. While it automates the reloading of modified source code, documentation indicates that consistency is not guaranteed across all storage backends. If the filesystem notification mechanism fails to trigger an update, the session continues to execute outdated code without providing an error or warning.
What specific filesystems types or network share configurations (e.g., SMB, NFS) are known to cause AutoReload to fail silently? Is there a threshold where manually invoking ⎕SE.Link.Refresh becomes mandatory to maintain a repeatable development state?
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