RE: [Axiom-developer] Documentation bug?

[Page, Bill]

On Tuesday, February 14, 2006 7:14 AM Ralf Hemmecke wrote:
> 
> Can someone explain that ...
> 
> (2) -> )abbr domain XYZ
>     domain must be followed by an alternating list of abbreviation(s)
>        and name(s). Issue )abbrev? for more information.
> (2) -> )abbrev?
>     Your argument list is not valid.
> 
> Very helpful! ;-)
> 

If you look in the Axiom source you will see, for example:

  )abbrev domain PRIMARR PrimitiveArray

  )abbrev package REALSOLV RealSolvePackage

  )abbrev category AGG Aggregate

This assigns the abbreviation PRIMARR to the domain named
PrimitiveArray, etc.

I suppose the error message implies that as a shortcut you can
assign more than one abbreviation in the same command, e.g.

  )abbrev domain NIPROB NumericalIntegrationProblem PRIMARR
PrimitiveArray

although I do not know of any case in the Axiom source where
this extended syntax is actually used.

Sometimes in SPAD source files you see several )abbrev commands
clustered near the beginning of the source and then the actual
source code for each module coming later in the file. As a style
I consider this rather poor practice and I prefer to see the
)abbrev command as the first source statement just preceeding
the source of the module. I think this convention is useful
because the SPAD syntax has no distinquishing keyword such as
'define' prior to the module name, e.g.

)abbrev domain DLIST DataList
++ This domain provides some nice functions on lists
DataList(S:OrderedSet) : Exports == Implementation where
  Exports == ListAggregate(S) with

.......

Regards,
Bill Page.