--- gnu-apl.d/preferences.in.orig	2019-06-23 12:39:20 UTC
+++ gnu-apl.d/preferences.in
@@ -301,10 +301,11 @@
 # execution mode and ∇-edit mode.
 #
 # Below the number of history lines and the location of the history file 
-# can be configured.
+# can be configured. If the file path starts with "~/", tilde (~) would
+# be expanded to the value of the 'HOME' environment variable.
 #
 READLINE_HISTORY_LEN  500
-READLINE_HISTORY_PATH .apl.history
+READLINE_HISTORY_PATH ~/.apl.history
 
 # The history can serve two purposes: to recall lines that were previously
 # and to list what was done (with command )HISTORY). For the latter purpose