Re: [Axiom-developer] debugging information

[root]

> Gee, that reminds me of our plans long ago to publish
> hardcopies of these volumes on www.lulu.com . I haven't
> looked at these volumes lately. What would be your estimate
> of how much work remains before we could submit something?
> Do you think getting these published should have a higher/
> lower priority than some of the other (more interesting?)
> stuff?

There are 4 volumes in book--main--1:
  Vol 1: Tutorial
  Vol 2: Programming
  Vol 3: Reference
  Vol 4: Developers Guide

I've been working my way back thru the email archives and extracting
emails that need to be integrated into these volumes. I've also split
up the book into the related volumes. 

There is much work to be done and I have no time estimate. 
Documentation is vital and good documentation takes much longer
than anyone expects. I'm looking into parts of the system and
have decided to write some debugging techniques and documentation
on writing pamphlet files so most of my effort is going into volume 4.

> 
> Since I now just about have the pamphlet support on MathAction
> working the way I want and the new book volumes are in the
> form of pamphlet files, I wonder if it would make it easier for
> other to contribute if I were to put these up on MathAction?
> This would allow direct editing through the web. If I did this,
> because of their size, maybe it would be a good idea to split
> the volumes out further to chapter sized documents and then
> define a master document for printing?

We can try putting the volumes online. Provided they still retain
their pamphlet format (ie latex) I think it's a reasonable idea.
I'm a little concerned about changes that would use things like
structured text, html, or other non-latex information in the files.
Those are fine for the wiki but not for the system files, of which
the book volumes are the cornerstone in my mind. 

Later I want to develop a few more volumes that are related to
pieces of the system. For example I think 

  Vol 5: Categories, Domains, and Package Internals
  Vol 6: The compiler
  Vol 7: The interpreter
  Vol 8: The algebra

where these contain, structure, and build upon the sources.
Volume 5 would explain the static and dynamic data structures,
file structures and manipulation functions. Volume 6 would
explain the compiler internals. Volume 7 would explain the
interpreter internals, and Volume 8 would document the algebra.

These 4 volumes would contain and structure the actual source
code of the system. So the current pamphlets would become
chapters within these volumes.

The system would be built from the books.

Eventually modifying Axiom becomes a job of authoring or
editing a section of one of the volumes.

I have a bit of machinery already (due to David Mentre) that
extends the pamphlet idea to "booklets". The basic change is
that chunk names have semantics. Thus in addition to the
standard random chunk name syntax:

<<random chunk name>>=
@

you can use a URI kind of syntax as in:

<<pamphlet:foo.pamphlet>> to include a pamphlet
<<file://....>> to include a file
<<http://....>> to include from a web source

etc. We can create our own protocols as needed.
  

> 
> It reminds me also that we had talked about making it possible
> to order CDrom containing installable versions of Axiom, the
> source code and documentation. I think this can be done on
> lulu with a bit of effort. I know that it is quite easy to
> sell CDs through www.cafepress.com where we currently have
> the Axiom Foundation Store (Axiom Gear).
> 
> I wonder if there is anyone out there who would like to take
> on the task to prepare such a CD? I could help but I don't
> want to lead the effort.

I can look into the installable CDRom issue.
I've already built iso images for ISSAC.

Tim