[Axiom-developer] CATS (Computer Algebra Test Suite)

[root]

Michael,

I sent you email last year to obtain permission to use your 
tables of system commands. It has since grown a bit to become
Rosetta.tex, a list of commands across more systems. Many of
the open source systems have been added.

We just concluded the Libre Software Meeting in Metz.

One of the results of the meeting was an agreement to pool some of
our resources in the area of Computer Algebra systems. CA systems
have tasks that are not central to the computer algebra problem itself
such as graphics, help browsers, etc. They also need test suites.

We came to the conclusion that it is both possible and useful to
develop a test suite that can be used in common. This effort begins
now and is known as CATS, the computer algebra test suite.

I'm looking at system-independent ways of organizing the information,
similar to the GAMS effort at NIST which organizes mathematical library
code. Unfortunately that effort seems oriented toward numerical libraries.

Ideally this test suite would be adopted by all of the systems listed
in the Rosetta.tex document. I'll be contacting the various groups to
enlist their input.

Since you've long been an active voice in this area I'd like to know
if you can give some feedback about this effort. Do you know of a 
classification scheme that we could readily adopt? Do you know of
freely useable examples? Do you have any suggestions regarding this
effort?

Many thanks,

Tim Daly
address@hidden
address@hidden