[Axiom-developer] MathAction Contents

[Martin Rubey]

Dear all,

I have done some cosmetics to MathAction, primarily to address the complaint
that it's FrontPage was too loaded.

Unfortunately, my time is very limited and even with regard to Axiom, I think
it is better spent in writing packages and fixing bugs.

However, I feel that MathAction is very important. If you google for axiom it
is the 5th hit, and it's usage statistics are quite impressive. So, what's the
problem?

If you look at MathAction, it is easily summarized: there is too much
text. A lot is duplicated, and some things are difficult to find.

So here are some small projects anyone can do:

* Merge SummerOfCode and WishList

* Reorganize the pages about 

    Programming in Axiom

    Using Aldor for Axiom

    Debugging Axiom

    Development

    ...

  in a sensible way.

* Walk through the contents of MathAction and see which things belong together
  and should be regrouped.


If you embark on any of these projects, it may make sense to first create a
(hierarchy of) SandBox page(s) containing the newly organized content
(partially probably copied and pasted...), post a message on axiom-developer,
and wait for: go ahead!

I personally prefer StructuredText Markup. In future, everything should be
coded as pamphlets, but we are not there yet. (If you are interested in *that*
issue, connect yourself with

Ralf Hemmecke    who designed a wonderful Aldor documentation format, which
                 will hopefully replace our pamphlet format in near future

Kai Kaminski     who is in charge of the Axiom User Interface, thereby
                 hopefully writing the successor to HyperDoc, thereby
                 converting the .ht pages to the above mentioned format in near
                 future

jsMath & tex4ht  which will probably enable proper rendering of the pamphlet
                 successor on Mathaction.


Thanks,

Martin

Bill, how large is the text-only content of MathAction currently (i.e.,
withouth axiom--main-test-1, and similar stuff)? If it is not too big, could
you send it to me tarred and zipped?