[Axiom-developer] Axiom package system

[C Y]

Bill Page wrote:

> Project 4: create a package management system for Axiom

Bill, would this entail either interfacing with and/or polishing the 
"database" system Axiom uses for mathematical relationships?

Tim was kind enough to explain a bit what the "database" actually is and 
some of the design considerations behind it here:
http://lists.nongnu.org/archive/html/axiom-developer/2006-10/msg00293.html

I might be wrong, but wouldn't any package mechanism be intimately 
connected with this system?  If so, perhaps the first project would be 
to thoroughly document the design of the "database" system (perhaps 
"datahash" would be more appropriate?) and then from there either 
modernize it as appropriate to make it easier to accomplish the new 
tasks like a package system  or proceed to implement the package system 
if the current setup is robust enough to handle it?

Perhaps Waldek and Gaby could comment, having worked with this system in 
the branches?

One functionality for package authors that would be really nice is a way 
to automatically generate a list of functionality they are using in all 
the code in a file or package.  This is particularly good for cases 
where multiple packages outside the main Axiom tree are used together 
and thus one or more requirements might not be present "by default."

Cheers,
CY