[Axiom-developer] RE: Axiom for Windows

[Bill Page]

Michel,

Unfortunately it is premature. At this point all I can
say is that I now feel like I am ready to "get serious".
I have experimented (successfully) with getting CCL running
under Windows using MinGW/Msys. CCL is one of the lisp that
was previously used for Axiom on the Windows platform. I
have also successfully compiled and run the newest version
of GCL (2.5) under Windows.

I also did some earlier experiments using Cygwin, but the
GCL developers have moved to MinGW as the primary platform
for Windows because it produces "native" code (does not
depend on any non-Windows supplied libraries). The advantage
of Cygwin however is that it does provide an X11 graphics
environment which might be important in future gui development
for Axiom. But I have other ideas about this based on my
experience with TexMacs - an open source graphical mathematical
text editor designed to interface with computer algebra
systems.

The current alpha version of Axiom that a have from Tim only
compiles using an earlier version of GCL (2.4) under Linux.
And that version currently has a bug which prevents all but
very simple algebra. Tim is working to correct this. Also it
does not currently completely compile with CCL. Because I have
not tried very hard, so far I have succeeded in compiling
only small parts of the Axiom code under CCL and GCL 2.5 in
the Windows environment.

The original code as supplied by NAG was claimed by them
to compile completely under an older version of linux (6.2?)
And that it should also have been possible to compile it
using CCL under Windows with the Microsoft C compiler. I
haven't yet taken the time to verify this. One reason is
that the procedures to do this are not at all well documented.
The other reason is that Tim's priorities are focused on
improving the documentation for the whole system by using
the combined source code+documentation techniques promoted
by Knuth in his WEB methodology (as extended and simplified
in a tool called noweb). But if you are adventuresome and
anxious to get started, you might want to try to play with
the original code. If so, you should ask Tim (nicely) if
he pass it on to you since I don't think it is still in
his cvs.

Tim, a while back I understood that you were in the process
of converting what you have to work with GCL 2.5 under linux.
How is that going? I recall that you found a problem with
some missing functionality in the first release of 2.5 (same
problem under the Windows version) that was later corrected
by the GCL developer. Can you now get to the same stage
with 2.5 that you were at with 2.4? If so, maybe I should
refresh the stuff I am working with from your most recent
source.

Cheers,
Bill Page.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: address@hidden 
> [mailto:address@hidden 
> Sent: Thursday, April 24, 2003 1:55 PM
> To: address@hidden
> Subject: Axiom for Windows
> 
> 
> Helo Bill,
> 
> Did you succeed to get a working version of Windows? Have you 
> written some 
> comments for compilation, so that it would be worth to ask 
> for an access 
> to CVS and try, or is it premature? 
> 
> Best wishes,
> 
> 
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