Re: [Axiom-developer] Unit package question

[smustudent1]

Least anyone think I have abandoned this, I just want to give a brief update:

I've started trying to create a units.spad.pamphlet file, but as yet I've not 
written any actual code - I'm trying to set up the structure of the latex 
document itself and provide a useful background on units, dimensions, and 
issues surrounding them.  This is not strictly speaking useful to the Axiom 
implementation part of this discussion, but has proven very educational for 
me about units, measurement, and standards :-).  I figure this is the moral
equalevent of documenting algorithms and domains in normal Axiom usage,
so I'll try to cram in all the potentially important information.  I suspect 
what I'll wind up with might be overkill, but it can always be trimmed down.

I'm trying to lay things out overall along the lines which have evolved from
the previous discussions, but those discussions printed out are well over 60 
pages so it's a lot to go through.  I'm going to add a couple sections to the 
document that initially won't see much (if any) work, as they are parts 
William disliked (ways to make units populate the top level namespace, 
Reverse Dimensional Analysis, user level tools for a MyUnits environment, 
etc.) and aren't necessary to the core functionality in any case.  Right now, 
I'm just trying to define terms, document the reasoning behind design 
decisions, find and cite useful and important sources like the NIST 
definition documents, and generally get set up so the nitty gritty 
implementation details have a framework to go in.  My first cut  will 
probably not be very good, but at least it will be something to tear apart 
and redo.  Once I've reached a stage where it might be of interest to someone 
I'll be glad to post it.  I may throw in a little code attempting to do 
something like define the top level Category, but it will almost certainly be 
completely wrong the first time around ;-).

Anyway, just wanted to let everyone know I hadn't lost interest.  (Real life 
can get rather annoying at times, too - jobs sure can eat up time :-/.)  

Thought we'd get more comment (other than from me anyway) on William's overall 
design ideas - maybe we got too longwinded and lost the audience? ;-)  

Cheers,
CY