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Re: [Axiom-developer] A Canonical Axiom GUI
From: |
Gabriel Dos Reis |
Subject: |
Re: [Axiom-developer] A Canonical Axiom GUI |
Date: |
07 Sep 2006 16:24:48 -0500 |
C Y <address@hidden> writes:
[...]
| It takes enough time and energy to evaluate a tool such as Axiom in a
| non-trivial way that the motivation to do so must be extreme. (How
| many people here have seen a sub-optimal tool used simply because
| people already knew it and thought it would be faster to use that tool
| instead of learn one they knew might be better?)
does Windows count as a tool? :-)
|
| For serious research, this may not be a problem. Axiom has a very
| strong foundation, and there are very probably lots of projects where
| the time spent learning Axiom will pay off well enough to motivate
| people to learn it, GUI or not. Many more, however, will not be that
| motivated.
|
| I would personally prefer that there exist a GUI for Axiom that is
| designed by the same people who are intimately familiar with the system
| itself, and (for example) might be able to teach a graphical
| environment to associate type information with graphical behavior in
| the GUI. (Imagine, for example, a GUI that would let someone drag a
| polynomial into an integration template but would refuse a matrix as an
| incompatible type. Or a formula template for ballistic motion that
| would reject anything with the wrong type in its slots. The visual
| display may or may not contain all of the important information for the
| user, but a GUI working with the type system itself could be far more
| intelligent.) My guess is 3rd party graphical systems are not likely
| to be interested in this type of work, preferring instead to simply use
| Axiom as a mathematical engine to get answers to common problems.
|
| I think it would be desirable for people who download and install
| Axiom, when they type "axiom" or click their Axiom icon, to have a GUI
| environment available that is similar in concept to the Maple and
| Mathematica environments, but perhaps with more or different
| functionality. Our "first impression" with potential users is what
| they see when they start the program, and I would personally like there
| to be a smooth, polished, and professional GUI as our first foot
| forward.
|
| Of course, someone would need to create such an environment, and code
| always speaks louder than emails. I have looked at these issues a
| little bit and will attempt to pursue them further, but I know the
| problem is significant. I guess it boils down to this:
|
| 1. I think a default GUI for Axiom would be a Very Good Thing
| 2. The project is not yet a a point where this should be a major focus
| for the project as a whole.
| 3. The work to make Axiom more friendly to ALL GUIs should be more
| important, because it will be useful to a very broad spectrum of
| applications. (Indeed, even the command prompt probably should work
| off of the same API some day.)
| 4. Code counts more than opinions, so I'll be quiet until I have more
| of the former ;-).
|
| Cheers,
| CY
|
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--
Gabriel Dos Reis
address@hidden
Texas A&M University -- Department of Computer Science
301, Bright Building -- College Station, TX 77843-3112
- [Axiom-developer] A Canonical Axiom GUI, C Y, 2006/09/07
- Re: [Axiom-developer] A Canonical Axiom GUI,
Gabriel Dos Reis <=
- Re: [Axiom-developer] A Canonical Axiom GUI, Gabriel Dos Reis, 2006/09/07
- Re: [Axiom-developer] A Canonical Axiom GUI, Kai Kaminski, 2006/09/07
- Re: [Axiom-developer] A Canonical Axiom GUI, Gabriel Dos Reis, 2006/09/07
- Re: [Axiom-developer] A Canonical Axiom GUI, C Y, 2006/09/07
- Re: [Axiom-developer] A Canonical Axiom GUI, Kai Kaminski, 2006/09/08
- Re: [Axiom-developer] A Canonical Axiom GUI, Martin Rubey, 2006/09/08
- Re: [Axiom-developer] A Canonical Axiom GUI, C Y, 2006/09/08
- RE: [Axiom-developer] A Canonical Axiom GUI, Bill Page, 2006/09/10
- RE: [Axiom-developer] A Canonical Axiom GUI, C Y, 2006/09/11